Clint's Comfort Food

Clint says the next recipes are two of of his top three favorite meals. They're good for the soul and for the belly. Both recipes make a ton so you'll have a lot of leftovers, or share the dishes with friends.

I traditionally make the Rigatoni with spicy Italian sausage but if you want to make it a vegetarian meal, simply omit the sausage and pump up the spices to make sure its not bland.

Baked Rigatoni with Sausage, Spinach and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 lb rigatoni
• 1 lb spicy Italian sausage
• 3 Tbl olive oil
• 1 10oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
• 2 Cup (1 lb) ricotta cheese
• 5 Tbl Parmesan cheese, grated
  
• 6 oz Fontina cheese, grated (1 1/2 Cups)
• dash of nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp salt
• dash of ground pepper
• palmful of red chili flake
  

Directions:

• Heat oven of 450; grease a 9x13 baking dish
• Boil water in a large pot of salted water; add pasta and cook for approximately 12 minutes
• While pasta is boiling, crumble and brown the sausage with the red chili flake. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and add to a large bowl
• Squeeze water out of spinach. Place in a food processor along with ricotta, 3 Tbl of Parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper and puree.
• Put into large bowl along with sausage; stir in 1/2 of fontina
• Stir the pasta into the spinach mixture
• Place into prepared dish and top with remaining fontina and Parmesan. Drizzle remaining oil over the top and bake until top is golden brown, between 15-20 minutes
• Serve immediately

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 C cooked chicken, shredded (you can use leftover baked chicken or get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and pick the meat off)
  
• 2 C Monterrey or Pepper Jack cheese, shredded and divided
• 1 C sour cream
• 1 large can of green chili enchilada sauce
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies
• 3-4 green onions, chopped
• 1 1/2 Tbl chili powder
  
• dash of salt
• dash of black pepper
• 2 packages (6 count) 6-inch corn tortillas
  

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Grease a 13x9 inch baking dish
• In a large bowl, mix together chicken, 1 C of cheese, sour cream, chilies, salt, pepper and chili powder
• Cover bottom of pan with corn tortillas, slightly overlapping (I use 6 for each layer)
• Top tortillas with a smear of sauce and 1/2 of chicken mixture.
• Repeat the process 1 more time, ending with a layer of tortillas on top.
• Smear the top layer of tortillas with sauce and garnish with cheese and scallions
• Bake, covered, for 30-35 minutes until completely heated and cheese is melted
• Serve immediately