My Baked Pasta (for pasta lovers!)
I created this one day when I fancied a big pasta dish, using the ingredients I had in the house.
It is really tasty. Cooking times are not the shortest but the recipe itself is easy. you can try it at the weekend when you ahve a bit more time to spend in the kitchen.
Delicious and rich meal.
Serves: 6 - Preparation time: 30/40 minutes - Cooking time: 40 minutes.
Ingredients:
80gr pasta per person
500ml tomato passata
1big onion thinly sliced
1/2 carrots cut into round thin slices
1 /2 courgettes cut into small pieces
1 pack of chestnut mushrooms cut into thin slices
1 handful of frozen peas
1 handful of capers
1 handful of black pitted olives
Parsley and or basil, origano, thyme
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp powder ginger
Olive oil
Salt, freshly ground pepper, nutmeg
Parmesan cheese
Butter.
Besciamella sauce:
Grass-fed butter - a big chunk
4 to 6 tbsp flour
1 glass milk (I use rice milk. The besciamella sauce comes out less thick but it still work and it does still taste good).
Directions:
Prepare the tomato sauce first - even the previous day.
Heat some oil in a big pan and fry the onion for a few minutes. Add a touch of water if necessary.
Add the other veggies and cook for about10 minutes before pouring in the passata.
Stir well, add all the herbs finely chopped, the seeds, turmeric and ginger, salt, pepper and bring to boil.
Cover and cook for another 10 minutes.
When the sauce is cooking prepare the besciamella sauce:
Melte the butter in a suace pan on low heat. Add the flour one spoon at a time stirring continuosly with a whisk. Then slowly pour in the warm milk and keep strirring until it start thickening. Add more milk if nencessary.
Grate in some black pepper and nutmeg; take out of the heat and let it rest of a little while (a few minutes).
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water following the instructions on the pack than heat the oven to 180 degreesC fan.
Drain the pasta and put is in a big bowl. Add some tomato sauce and some besciamella and stir well.
Take an oven proof dish well oiled, a dd a little bit os sauce at the bottom, thenadd the pasta in two layers and between each layer add more tomato sauce and besciamella so that the pasta is fully coated. Sprinkle with parmesan chees and little flakes of butter on the top.
Cook in the oven for about 40 minutes.
Let it rest for about 5 minutes and enjoy a lovely pasta dish!
Note:
Let the besciamella sauce cool for a little bit then add an egg yolk and stir well. It will give it a bit more consistency and add some extra flavour!
