Crispy Cheesy Sheet-Pan Pasta Bake

Like the longest cheese pull in the world.

Whoa.

Hi, I'm Anna Stockwell from Bon Appétit

and today I'm going to be making

a crispy cheesy sheet-pan pasta bake

using Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup.

Start by cranking up this pot of water

and getting it nice and salty.

Gonna get that in there.

I'm using penne today

but you can use any shape of pasta that you like

and that's gonna go for 12 minutes.

All right, so I have a lot of kale here.

Just tear it off the stem into bite size pieces.

Oh, hello.

This pot wanted us to say hi.

Hi, pot, it's okay, calm down.

What I really like about this dinner

is it's really fast to make,

there's a lot of cheese involved but also a lot of kale

so it's a nice balance between comfort food

and a healthy weeknight dinner.

What's not to love?

One whole large bunch of kale.

Done, ready for us.

Now, we have to make the bread crumb mixture.

Panko breadcrumbs which are Japanese style breadcrumbs,

some Parmesan cheese, two tablespoons worth of oil in here.

The reason you wanna add the oil

is because it helps the breadcrumbs toast better

when we put this in the oven

and then we wanna season with some salt and also some pepper

and mix it all up in here and this is gonna be our topping

for the sheet-pan dinner.

I have here low moisture mozzarella.

Get that nice and grated.

Half a cup of cheese here.

I have a sheet-pan here.

Put the kale on here.

I'm gonna just drizzle it with some oil.

This helps the kale crisp nicely when it cooks.

I think our pasta's telling us that it's done.

Okay, yes, this is ready to drain.

Don't forget this.

Save your pasta cooking water.

Don't forget.

Pasta cooking water is essential for pasta sauce.

Right back into the hot pot

and now we're ready to start making our cheese sauce.

So I'm gonna start with pouring in this can

of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup

and the reason I'm using this soup

is because it acts as a really great thickening agent

and stabilizer for my cream sauce.

If I were building this sauce without the soup,

I would have to make a roux

which is like a little bit annoying and labor-intensive

and this tastes great and just builds that sauce for you.

If you're vegetarian,

you can use cream of mushroom soup instead.

Three quarters cup of whole milk.

A tablespoon of mustard.

You don't really taste it in the final sauce.

It just sort of helps balance out the flavors

and adds a little acid.

Some more Parmesan here.

The magic ingredient, pasta cooking water.

You just wanna stir it until everything is coated.

We have to add our cheese, some salt, some pepper,

just a little bit of cayenne and some garlic.

Why mince when you can grate?

Yeah.

Look at that, it's getting all nice and melty.

I love it when the cheese gets stringy, mm.

At this moment, I can tell that my sauce is a little bit dry

and I wanna add a little bit more pasta cooking water

to help it get smoother and silkier.

Melted cheese.

Our sauce is complete.

Now we just need to add it to this kale

and pop it in the oven.

Look at that, it looks good, all that melted cheese, mm.

Tuck and toss the kale.

I like to do this on a sheet-pan

because it bakes a lot faster in the oven

and the bigger the surface area

means more crispy bits on top.

Cheesy breadcrumbs all over the top.

Lay it on thick.

Okay, so I'm just gonna pop this in the oven

and this is gonna take about five minutes

until it gets nice and crispy on top.

There we go.

That is ready.

This is such an easy crowd-pleasing weeknight dinner

good for about four people.

So yeah, I mean, I need like four other friends

to help me eat this pasta but mm, it's good.

What's not to love?

It's like kale chips and macaroni and cheese all in one.

Crispy in places but also wilted in places.

It's a nice textural balance.

A nice creamy, thick sauce.

That cream of chicken soup really helps hold it all together

and make it nice and soft and glossy.

Try it next time you want an easy,

comforting sheet-pan dinner.