Cheesy Baked Pumpkin Pasta with Pancetta, Kale, and White Beans

Cheesy Baked Pumpkin Pasta with Pancetta, Kale, and White Beans

Source: Skinnytaste

Our Rating: 4/5

I'm always looking for more ways to get dark leafy greens into my diet because I know they are great for me, but I don't love them naturally.  What do I love?  Cheesy pasta!  So I had to give this recipe a try to get myself to eat some kale.  I just have to say, there was a LOT of kale in this.  I find my skillet to be pretty sizable, but it was some effort getting it all in there and stirring without spilling.  

Adding the pancetta back in really adds a great pop of color and of course flavor. 

Now we add the pumpkin cheese sauce and really try to stir it all together.  I tried my best to break up the big clumps of kale but there were for sure still big chunks of kale in the final product.  This was my biggest issue with the dish, I needed the kale to be better dispersed but that was likely chef error on my part. 

Finally, we've hidden the kale!  Out of sight, out of mind :) 

The breadcrumbs and extra cheese on top make it bake up so beautifully and adds a great texture to the final product.  Getting to this point is a little bit of work, but I felt this made enough servings and lasted me the whole week so it was worth the little bit of effort up front.  

I love a nice comforting casserole for meal prep.  I find it so easy to go back to for lunches each day because it's so easy to heat back up and the flavors are just as great the rest of the week!