Baked Pasta with Spinach, Lemon, and Cheese

A nice, savory side dish! This goes well with any grilled entree. This would also work well as a main dish with just a salad to complete the meal. If you would like this as a main dish, then divide the pan into 8 equal servings. The points value would be 8+


serves 12 ( 5 points +) 

• 10 oz. uncooked fusilli pasta
• 1 ( 5oz) package fresh baby spinach
• 1 T. olive oil
• 4 c. chopped onion
• ¼ c. flour
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2-½ c. skim milk
• ½ c. white wine
• 1 c. Parmesan cheese, divided
• ¾ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. grated lemon rind
• ½ tsp. pepper
• ¾ c. Panko Japanese breadcrumbs, divided

Preheat oven to 375. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. Remove from heat, stir in spinach and let stand for 2 minutes. Drain pasta and spinach mixture.
Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray. Add olive oil. Cook onion until tender. Stir in flour and garlic. Cook 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk and wine. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in ¾ c. cheese, salt, lemon rind and pepper.
Add pasta mixture to cheese mixture, stirring to coat. Transfer mixture to a 13 x 9" pan coated with nonstick spray. Top pasta mixture with half if the Panko, then remaining ¼ c. cheese, then remaining Panko.
Cover with foil and bake for 30-35 minutes or until heated through.

adapted from "Cooking Light"