I am not a great cook and I am an Italian living abroad so I know how to cheat on food and survive quite happily, ha! :)
Also, this is a great dish to use your veggies and cheese leftovers!
*Pasta Al Forno* (Oven Baked Pasta)
Ingredients for 2 (as the Ancient Romans would say "melius abundare quam deficere"):
- 250 grams pasta (short pasta is better, in this case I used fusilli)
- one pepper, whichever colour, red, yellow or green, hehe (or you can use aubergine, courgettes, etc...)
- 2 very thick slices of ham (mine is Tuscan ham :) but whatever kind or even 4 thick slices salami will do!)
- 1 jar tomato sauce, yes I cheat! (this one is a lovely basil and tomato "nana style" sauce)
- lotsa cheese (I used a mix of red cheddar and parmesan, you can use whatever takes your fancy)
- some fresh basil (or dried! or not basil at all if you are basil-less :D)
- oregano
- chilly powder
- coarse salt (or fine salt, if you don't have the coarse)
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| Some of the ingredients |
Bring the water for the pasta to the boil (in Ireland I use the kettle for this, unfortunately boiling water on an electric cooker can take forever), add some coarse salt to the water and then add your pasta and leave to cook for as long as indicated on the pasta's package; while you boil the water and cook the pasta you can prepare your other ingedients: rinse the basil, grate the cheese(s), roughly mince the ham (by hand or with a blender), chop your pepper as fine/thick as you like.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, put it back in its pot, add the sauce, some grated cheese (to me, the more, the better :)), the ham, the chopped pepper, a little chilly powder and a little dried oregano; mix well. Lay this mix in an oven dish and cover (yes cover!) it with grated cheese and some basil leaves for added lovely smell and flavour.
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| Evidence of the yummyness, ready for some oven love |
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| That is not red wine ;) |
My oven is a fan one and the degrees are in celsius, I put the oven on 180 degrees and cook for 10 minutes on the higher slot plus 5/10 minutes of grill to make the pasta and the cheese crunchy with a nice crust.
You can obviously adapt this times/temperatures to your will, depending on your tastes and the type of oven you use.
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| Ready to serve! |
Take out and serve, maybe with some full-bodied red wine, better if Italian, obviously :)
Om nom nom!
Let me know if you try it, or if you are drooling a wee bit over your keyboard :D
Dinner time for me, now!
Sharing this at the lovely:
Rock 'N Share @ The Shady Porch
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
Sat Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Lovely Crafty weekend @ Lovely crafty Home
Get Schooled Saturday @ Too Much Time On My Hands
It's A HodgePodge Friday @ It's A HodgePodge Life
