...with this yummy pasta bake. If, like me, you have a few spinach-phobic members in your family, this pasta bake might be a good one to try. The smoked mozzarella is the dominate flavor, while the spinach, though plentiful, plays a more minor taste role. My husband and oldest son enjoyed it quite a bit, but my youngest wasn't so easily fooled - he still wasn't crazy for the spinach. Frozen spinach does tend to clump and it's a bit stringy, so I think next time I would consider pureeing it with the marinara sauce first to create a smoother, more evenly distributed sauce.
I used Barilla Plus for this dish and it worked quite well. My only gripe? The penne box is only 14.5 ounces, instead of 16. I don't know if their Penne Plus was always 14.5 ounces or if they have downsized, but it's annoying just the same. I wish companies would stop doing this! Recipes are often written based on commonly available sizes and it SO annoying when companies downsize or produce boxes that are smaller than the standard size - it messes with recipe proportions. And 1.5 ounces less pasta is almost one whole serving less per box.
In any case, this recipe was a winner for us - pretty easy to put together, though it did use a fair amount of pots/pans/dishes (one to cook the pasta, one to heat the sauce, one to mix the cheese and sour cream, and one to bake it in).
