Baked Pasta with Bechamel Sauce

The beauty of making more sauce than you will eat in one sitting: leftovers. Yesterday's bechamel sauce became today's pasta sauce. This baked pasta could easily disguise itself as grown-up mac and cheese and with the bechamel sauce already made, it took less than 30 minutes to make.




Baked Pasta with Bechamel Sauce

1/4 pound dry pasta
1/2 to 2/3 cup Bechamel sauce
1 tsp onion powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/3 cup grated Swiss cheese
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, diced

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. In a large pot, bring 5 quarts of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for about 5 minutes. Drain. Return pasta to the pot and pour in the bechamel sauce. Add the onion powder and salt and pepper to taste. Mix with a wooden spoon until all the pasta is coated with sauce.
3. Pour the pasta into a greased baking dish. Smooth out the top and top with grated Swiss cheese. Dot with diced butter and bake for 20 minutes or until it is bubbling and the top is golden brown.

Serves 1