Antipasto Mac n Cheese

This is very loosely based on a pasta bake recipe from Taste.com.au. I've made this before, as the original incarnation - learning from this experience, this time I used regular pasta, and just doubled the amount I'd use to feed my family. (Which is a full pack per meal!) This recipe will make 2 pasta bakes, or one pasta bake, and 4 1/2 bowls of pasta. (I couldn't be bothered with the bake bit tonight lol)

Antipasto Mac n Cheese
1kg pasta
120g butter
1/2 cup plain flour
4 cups milk
3 cups grated cheddar cheese
250g rindless bacon, diced
250g fire roasted capsicum
1 stick celery, sliced thinly
150g semi dried tomato strips, drained
100g baby spinach
3 tsp mustard

Preheat oven to 180°C. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water, following packet directions until tender.

Meanwhile, fry bacon and celery in a saucepan, until golden. Add the capsicum and tomato strips and stir for a few more minutes. Put into a covered bowl and set aside.

Melt butter in the same saucepan over medium heat. When foaming, add flour. Cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Add half the milk SLOWLY while whisking until smooth. Add remaining milk and whisk to combine. Return pan to high heat. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 3 minutes or until sauce comes to the boil and thickens. (it's probably longer because there is more sauce) Remove from heat.

Stir in 2 cups cheese and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Tip in bacon mixture. If mixture has liquid pooling in the bottom of the bowl, strain that off first. Mix gently through the sauce, then fold in spinach. The heat will wilt down the spinach, so just be patient with it.

Drain pasta and return to pot. Add sauce. Stir to combine. Spoon into 2 7-cup capacity baking dishes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. Serve.

Uncooked (or cooked) pasta bakes can be frozen in a baking dish if covered. Allow to defrost thoroughly before cooking as directed.

Mt kids are such foodies. Here is Master One picking out his semi dried tomatoes, so he can eat them first!

Agnolotti & Broccoli Bake

DP wasn't impressed with this, because he is not a fan of store bought filled pasta. He doesn't mind filled pasta, as long as I were to make it myself.

Yeah, I laughed too.

This is yet another way of making my favourite Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta. Note, there is no actual chicken in this. In fact, there was no meat at all, so vegetarian friendly!

Agnolotti & Broccoli Bake
1 jar Chicken Tonight Creamy Lemon Chicken sauce
630g pk Fresh Agnolotti with Ricotta, Spinach and Cracked Pepper
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1/3 cup crumbled feta
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Cook the pasta as directed on the packet, throwing in the broccoli for the last 3 of the 5 minutes cooking time. Drain pasta, and place into a large casserole dish. Add the corn, feta and sauce, and mix thoroughly. Top generously with mozzarella, and bake until golden brown.

Fresh from the oven

2 for 1 Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta (Bake)

I know by now you are all aware that we are very fond of my Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta, but tonight I made it slightly different, and more of it. I'm trying to get a buffer up, of a few meals that can feed all of us during the upcoming move. Moving is never fun, less so with children, and I'd prefer not to have to feed them junk every night while we settle in. This was surprisingly easy to expand into two meals, and what's easier than a frozen pasta bake, ready to pop into the oven?

2 for 1 Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta (Bake)
500g pasta (we used hi-fibre spirals)
3 small carrots, sliced
2 small heads broccoli, cut into florets
200g mushrooms, sliced
175g bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
1 red capsicum, chunky diced
1 cup corn
1/2 cheese, + more for sprinkling
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 jar Chicken Tonight Creamy Lemon Chicken

Put some water on to boil for the pasta, add some salt to taste, and the carrots. Add the pasta when the water is boiling, and cook to preferred stage of 'doneness'. About 4 or 5 minutes before the pasta is done, throw the broccoli florets into the pasta water to cook gently. You have to time this well, as too long will result in soggy broccoli, but not long enough will result in semi raw broccoli. Err on the side of caution in which your family is most likely to eat. For instance, my kids will eat broccoli any way it comes, raw or mooshy, but Master One can't eat raw broccoli yet. So I tend to overcook rather than undercook my vegetables when I don't know what I'm doing. You get a feel for it eventually.

While the pasta and boiled vegies cook, fry the onion, bacon, capsicum, and mushrooms in a pan. Add the corn last if you are using frozen like I did, or whenever if using canned. If you are using fresh corn kernels, then you are a better mother/cook than me, and you should know how long it needs anyway :P
Once all that is browned and cooking away nicely, add the soup and sauce, and cook down until everything is cooked and smooth and yummy. You'll have to use your own discretion for this.

Drain the pasta and vegies, and tip back into the pot. Pour all the sauce into the pot, and mix to combine thoroughly. Dish out enough for everyone to eat that night. Then tip the rest into a disposable foil tray. Washing dishes, like cooking, is also something that isn't much fun while moving. And even if you aren't moving, it's always nice to have few dishes on a lazy dinner night.
Add the 1/2 cup of cheese and mix in well. Sprinkle a bit more cheese on the top if you like. Cover with foil, and cool before freezing.

Frozen pasta needs to be thawed, before baking at 180C until golden.

Ready for freezer. Note the anti-dishes foil tray

Don't forget to think (and cook!) pink for the Virtual Night In, raising money and awareness for Breast Cancer Research.

Tuscan Pasta Bake

Sorry, not in a very bloggy type mood. The recipe for this vegetarian pasta bake came from The GI diet website, so it's low GI as well. Tasty, but DP informed me he didn't like beans, (as he left all his beans in his bowl - not before dinner when I could have something about it) so we won't be having this again, regardless of it's tastiness and healthiness.

Cheese, Capsicum & Broccoli Bake

Cheese, Capsicum & Broccoli Bake

300g macaroni
2 heads broccoli, broken (or chopped) into small florets
250g cottage cheese
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp dried tarragon
2 cloves garlic, crushed
200g char-grilled capsicum slices, drained
grated tasty cheese

Preheat oven to 190°C (170°C fan forced).
Cook pasta until slightly firm, (about 7 minutes) then add the broccoli and cook for a further 2 or 3 minutes, until pasta is al dente.
Mix together all the other ingredients except the grated cheese.
Pour sauce into cooked, drained pasta, and place in a casserole dish. Cover with cheese.
Cook for 20-25 minutes or until cheese has melted and gone golden.

(Adapted from a low-fat recipe in the latest (August) issue of Recipes+)

This was a no brainer. Really simple to make, fairly cheap (except the capsicum) and very filling. The kids loved it, but then, I think I could almost serve dog food with broccoli and they'd eat it. Well, they'd pick the broccoli out and eat that most likely. So ok, the kids liked this for more than the broccoli. But it's hard to go wrong with a cheesy pasta dish really. The original recipe, apart from using all low-fat alternatives, called for 1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley, but I didn't have any so I substituted the tarragon instead. I also used garlic salt instead of fresh garlic, simply because I was running so late, and I don't have a crusher.

See Miss Two attempting to steal mine while I took the photo?

So there you have it... by popular demand, the most requested recipe on my blog ever!

Perfect Pasta

My first Cooks Club Challenge recipe for a while, but it seemed so easy I thought I could jump back in with this, no problems.

Here is the recipe as copied from the forum.

PERFECT PASTA
1 onion
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
400g tinned tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
salt and pepper
pinch of sugar
340g rigatoni or penne
450g favourite sausages
30g bread
30g cheddar cheese

1. Set the oven. Peel the onion and chop finely. Peel the garlic and crush it or chop it finely. Heat the oil in a frying pan.
2. Cook the onion with garlic over a low heat until soft, then add the tinned tomatoes and tomato puree and stir well.
3. Let the pasta sauce simmer over a low heat for about 10 minutes. Then season it with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.
4. Boil some salted water in a saucepan. Add the pasta, cook it for about 12 minutes until just soft, then drain it in a colander.
5. Meanwhile, turn on the grill. Prick the sausages with a fork, then grill them on all sides for about 10-12 minutes until brown.
6. Remove the sausages from the grill, leave them until they are cool enough to handle, then cut them into chunky slices.
7. Grate the cheese for the topping. Grate the bread into breadcrumbs, or else make the breadcrumbs in a food processor.
8. Stir the cooked pasta and sliced sausages into the tomato sauce, then spoon the mixture into a baking dish.
9. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs and grated cheese over the pasta. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the topping is crisp.

After going out for a very last minute shop, I wasn't very impressed with myself to come home and find what I thought were onions in the cupboard were actually lemons. So I had to skip the onion, but I replaced it with a slice of finely chopped slice of bacon. I used pre-made breadcrumbs, and pre-grated cheese, and the sausages I bought were Chicken, Cheese and Garlic ones from Safeway. Also, the tomato paste I used was one of those flavoured ones, with basil and oregano in it.

I was trying to save myself some washing up, so I used the fry pan instead of the grill to cook my sausages, but forgot to prick them, so all the filling oozed out all over the pan. In the end I gave up on chunky sausage slices and resigned myself to lumpy chicken mince pieces. Still tasted good though, even though the top of mine didn't go crispy, just sort of cheesy with breadcrumb-y bits.

It was nice enough, but I don't think we'd make this again. We are not a huge fan of sausages in this household, as almost all that you can buy are too fatty for DP and my tastes (the kids don't care) and DP won't eat kangaroo, so that cuts out the only truely non-fatty sausage type I know of. Still, it was very easy, and perhaps with a few modifications I might make it again, perhaps with leftover bbq chook or something.

On a lighter note, here is Master One-Month-Old:

OMG! I'm Cute!