Thursday, November 13, 2008

My Tastiest Pasta Bake Ever!

I've made this several times before, but for some reason today's tasted sooo good. I think it must've been the addition of shredded mozzarella and red cheddar cheese (I bought a mixed packet at Cold Storage) which was mixed through the pasta and meat sauce.

This is my own recipe and I basically just used up what was in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Pasta
Can of Stewed Tomatoes
Tomato Paste
(and I even added some ready made pizza sauce I had in the fridge for extra flavour)
Dried herbs like Thyme and Oregano
Pepper
Salt
Red and yellow capsicums/bell peppers, diced
Onions, diced
Garlic, chopped
Minced Beef
Mix of shredded Mozzarella and Red Cheddar Cheese

For the White Sauce:
Butter
Plain Flour
Milk
Chicken Stock
  1. Cook the pasta until it is half cooked, drain and reserve.
  2. Heat some olive oil in a pot and stir fry the diced onions until soft, add the garlic and brown the beef mince.
  3. Add the tomato paste, the can of tomatoes and the capsicums.
  4. Sprinkle with the herbs and season to taste.


  5. Return the drained pasta to the saucepan and combine evenly while adding the mixed cheeses to it.


  6. To make the white sauce, melt some butter in a saucepan and sprinkle the flour into the butter and cook it out a little bit. Rachel Ray says don't overcook flour paste mix because it will affect it's thickening power. Whisk the liquids slowly making sure you whisk out all the lumps until smooth and seaon with pepper. The reason I used chicken broth was because I ran out of milk and again I saw on Rachel Ray show that she used chicken broth instead of milk for a more figure friendly option and she's right it tastes great.
  7. Tip the pasta into a casserole or baking pan. I prefer not to pat the pasta down because I like to have some sticking out the top so that it crispens up and browns a bit. Drizzle the white sauce over the top and place in a preheated oven until the pasta is fully cooked and the top browns.


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