Now that spring has sprung, I figured what would be a better way to celebrate than a meal that screams spring? With a little bit of searching, I was able to find a recipe for Springtime Penne. Here are my thoughts!
Getting the ingredients for this dish was a piece of cake, and it was pretty inexpensive too. The recipe was super easy to follow, and it didn’t take much time at all. The ingredients needed are butter, asparagus, heavy cream, penne, diced ham, salt, pepper, onion, and shredded parmesan (optional). I decided to use broccoli instead of asparagus because I like broccoli better, but feel free to use whatever your heart desires. I started by boiling the pasta as usual.
While the pasta was boiling, I chopped up my veggies and started to make the sauce. Once mixing all the ingredients in the saucepan to make the sauce, I drained the pasta then mixed everything together in the pot I used to boil the pasta. This took me about 20 minutes, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good this dish was.
My roommate tried it and loved it. This made 5 servings and it would be great for meal-prepping and leftovers. I ate all my leftovers because it was just that good. This dish reminds me of a nice hug on a warm spring day. This is the perfect meal for a cozy spring day at home and I would definitely make this again. If you are not a ham person, you could substitute the ham for chicken and make it a chicken alfredo situation. This meal can easily be adapted to fit your taste, and I think that kids would find this dish delicious as well. If you need a pasta dish to make your springtime a little bit brighter, I would definitely check this recipe out. This recipe would be great for Easter lunch or just a night in with friends. If you wanted the dish to have more vegetables, you could add cauliflower, tomato, broccoli, spinach, bell pepper, etc.
Overall, I would give this dish an 8/10. It was delicious, but I would probably add garlic powder or onion powder for more flavor. I also would have preferred for the sauce to be thicker. I think this is a great budget-friendly recipe for college students, and I would definitely make this recipe again.