Vampires, take note. Elaine Breeding's creamy, cheesy pasta dish is so loaded with garlic that her husband, Bob, dubbed it "Dracula’s Revenge" when she served it to guests in her Sykesville, Maryland, home several years ago. But this Baked Penne With Sausage and Garlic might have just as easily been called "Return of the Blob"—it's delicious, but the fat is monstrously high. Now that Elaine, a retired school secretary, and Bob, a retired vocational-center principal, are more mindful of healthful choices, a contemporary remake was in order. "If we don't get rid of the fat, Dracula or some other evil will get us in the end," Bob says.

Not if we can help it. Elaine asked us to take a look at the original recipe, which was indeed in dire need of a transformation. With its whole milk, Italian sausage, and almost a cup of butter, one serving weighed in at about 30 grams of fat. Using a few tricks of our own, we switched to low-fat milk and turkey sausage, and we reduced the butter to about a sixth of that in the original. With these changes, we were able to cut the fat grams in half, slicing the percentage to 30%—down from a scary 49%. And we roasted the abundant, good-for-your-heart garlic, which mellows the dish's distinctive bite without killing it. According to Elaine, the sauce in our version is "deliciously delicate, like alfredo, and tastes even better reheated the next day." Assuming that after Halloween, there is a next day....

Before | After
(Serving Size, 1 cup)

Calories per serving
527 | 434

Fat
28.9g | 14.4g

Percent of total calories
49 percent | 30 percent

Cholesterol
78mg | 57mg