Easy Ham and Cheese Pasta Bake
This Easy Ham and Cheese Pasta Bake recipe is a great way to use leftover ham! Just a few ingredients is all you need for the savory leftover ham pasta bake.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Category: main
- Method: stove top + baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 cups leftover ham, cut into bit sized pieces* (see notes)
- 1/4 cup dry white wine (or you could use chicken broth)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese – we used a blend of cheddar and Monterey Jack
- 1/2 cup cream — heavy cream or coconut creamer works
- 1 1/2 cups steamed broccoli, optional (or other cooked vegetable on hand)
- 10 ozs pasta — short shape such as elbows
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet (oven proof unless you are going to transfer to a casserole dish for baking). Add the onion, and cook on medium heat for at least 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the onion to start turning brown (caramelizing).
- Start cooking the pasta according to package instructions as the onion cooks. Cook the pasta al dente — so that it is just tend — as it will continue to cook in the oven. Drain the pasta when done and toss with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Set aside.
- Stir the leftover ham along with 1/4 cup of cooking wine into the skillet with the onions. Heat on medium low, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
- Add the pasta to skillet (see notes) stirring to combine the pasta with the ham and onions. Stir in 1 cup of the shredded cheese, along with the cream and broccoli, if using. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese over the top of the pasta and ham, along with the breadcrumbs.
- Bake the pasta. Cover the skillet or casserole dish, and place in the oven. Bake covered for 10 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for another 5 minutes. You can switch to broil for another minute or two at the end to brown the cheese more if you like. Remove carefully from oven, and serve hot. Enjoy!
Notes
- Baking pasta in a skillet or casserole dish: If you have a large, oven proof skillet with a cover, using the same skillet to cook the onion and to bake pasta is convenient. However, you can also transfer the ham and pasta combination to a casserole dish for baking if that works better for what you have available.
- Amount of ham: we list 2 cups of ham, based on what we used. But you can vary it based on what is available, but ideally will have at least 1 1/2 cups.
- Adding vegetables brings color and nutrition to the dish. It’s also a good way to use veggies that might be leftover from your ham dinner. We enjoyed the ham pasta bake with broccoli. Peas or green beans could also work well.
- You could skip the cream if you want.
Find it online: https://cookingchatfood.com/ham-and-cheese-pasta-bake/
