Creamy Basil and Red Pepper Pasta

It's very rare when my husband actually requests pasta for dinner. But once in a while, when the temperature starts to drop and it gets dark early outside... he relents and actually requests some spaghetti for dinner.

Never one to squander an opportunity, I tried out a new recipe on him this week.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups penne pasta, uncooked

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Fat Free Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup fat free milk

1 jar (7 oz.) roasted red peppers, well drained

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

2 Tbsp. KRAFT 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (oops, I forgot to buy chicken. This ended up being a vegetarian dish for us!)

DIRECTIONS

COOK pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, place peppers, cream cheese, milk, basil and Parmesan cheese in blender; cover. Blend until smooth; set aside.

SPRAY large skillet with cooking spray. Add chicken; cook on medium-high heat 3 min., stirring frequently. Stir in pepper mixture. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 min. or until heated through, stirring frequently.

DRAIN pasta. Add to chicken mixture; stir gently until well blended.

VERDICT

I didn't give this recipe much hope for being outstanding. It was from the Kraft Foods site (which basically is just one giant advertisement for their products and usually lacks any seasoning) but it sounded decent enough. We were so pleasantly surprised!

The sauce has kind of a funny color, and it does seem like it will be really rich with all that cream cheese, but it was delicious! I imagine it's even better with the chicken as directed.

Best of all, we used giant rigatoni from Wegman's Italian collection. Well worth the extra price.

This was so good I saved the left-over sauce (and there is quite a lot) in a tupperware container in the freezer for future use!