Hello!

Apparently I’ve been baking and cooking a lot recently and I’m really enjoying it, considering I’m going to uni in September I’m going to need to start cooking for myself and I can refer back to these blog posts when I can’t just ask my mum to do it for me!

So I’ve been perfecting my recipe for a really easy pasta bake and I wanted to share it with you! My sister took all the wonderful photos, so blame her for how hungry you feel at the end!

Ingredients:
400g tin of chopped tomoatoes
Two mugsfulls of pasta (that’s how much I used anyway)
Tomato puree
Garlic paste
Salt
Pepper
Cheese, I used cheddar
Ham, whatever kind you like

Step 1: Pour the tomatoes into a pan and leave to simmer and reduce. Add however much tomato puree, garlic paste, salt and pepper as you like – I love the tomato-y taste and the garlic, salt and pepper do very little as far as I can taste but when I was googling recipes on Jamie Oliver’s website, they all said add seasoning and it makes me feel more like a chef.

I am not a chef.

At this point I would usually add chopped mushrooms but we didn’t have any in the fridge. Also make sure the oven is at about 200 degrees so it pre-heats.

Step 2: Leave the tomato paste simmering and measure out your pasta – I used two mugs worth of pasta because I was making it to take to school for lunch for the rest of this week but it depends on how much pasta you want in relation to your sauce – I’d rather have less sauce and more pasta, but you’ve got to experiment and figure out what you want.

Step 3: Boil the kettle and pour enough water to completely submerge all your pasta, bringing it to the boil and letting it simmer. Leave the sauce and the pasta for at least twenty minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure the water doesn’t boil over. Did you turn the oven to 200 degrees? Make sure you did, if you haven’t yet.

Step 4: Whilst waiting for the sauce and the pasta, you can prepare your ham and cheese. I ripped it into smaller pieces because I’m too lazy to chop it up properly.

I grated a lot of cheese because I love cheese and then my sister took this photo that I could only describe as ‘food porn’. I really love cheese.

Step 5: By now, your pasta and sauce should be just about done – drain your pasta and mix the ham into the sauce. Pour the tomato sauce with ham into the pasta and mix it so the pasta is completely coated in the sauce. At this point, add about half (maybe more) of your cheese to the pain, mixing it all together so the cheese melts into the sauce. Are you sure you pre-heated the oven?

Step 6: Start singing ‘Star Girl’ by McFly with your sister and make her fall on the floor laughing when you sing the word ‘uranus’ and then she can’t help you take photos and this is how your pasta bake ends up.

Step 7: Pour the pasta into a dish and sprinkle the rest of your cheese on the top. Put the dish into the pre-heated oven for about ten minutes to melt the cheese and little bit and give your sister the chance to take some absolutely astonishingly beautiful photos.

Step 8: Take your pasta bake out of the oven and marvel at how well the whole event has actually gone. (I didn’t set anything on fire)

Step 9: I then put the pasta in a couple of boxes, leaving them to cool for about an hour before putting them in the fridge and I’ll put it into a smaller box to take into school for lunch tomorrow. For reheating, I recommend putting it in the microwave for about a minute, stirring and then heating for another minute.

It’s really, really simple and so good – if I’ve got half an hour, I’ll make this because you can make enough portions to last a few days!

Thanks for reading,

Sophie xx




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