One in an occasional series, of Thrown Together Ingredients That Turned Out Well (TTITTOW). I’m calling this one Red Pepper Pasta Bake. It was pretty easy to make and tasted amazing.
What I used:
- Four red bell peppers, halved (top to bottom) and deseeded
- Tablespoon of olive oil
- Two small onions, diced (one large would also work, but I didn’t have any large onions)
- One clove of garlic, crushed (or a teaspoon of the ready prepped stuff)
- Two handfuls of frozen mushrooms (never said it was going to be precise – what did you think “thrown together” meant?)
- Teaspoon of paprika
- 500g bag of fresh tagliatelle (dried works just as well, just cook for a bit longer)
- Two 200g packs of Asda soft cream cheese (It’s like Philadelphia – use the one you like best. The one with Garlic & Herbs works well)
- One 200g pack of wafer thin cooked chicken (you could use ham or pepperoni or omit the meat altogether if you want a veggie version)
- 500g passata
- One Knorr chicken stock pot (again, use a veggie one if you would rather)
- Half a courgette, diced
- 400ml stock
- A sprinkling of Aromat seasoning
- As much grated cheese as you can lay your hands on
- Salt and pepper to taste
What I did:
Put the halved, deseeeded peppers in an oven tray and cook for half an hour at 200° C or until the skins turn black. Bring them out, let them cool for about ten minutes, then peel and discard the skins. Pop the peppers into a blender or food processer and jhujzz* until they take on a sauce-like texture. (*whizz, zap, whirr, blend, pulse, chop – whatever your word of choice is – in this house, we say jhujzz, although we are unsure of the correct spelling)
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a fairly deep frying pan. Add the onions and garlic and fry on a medium heat for about five minutes. Throw in the frozen mushrooms (if you would rather use fresh mushrooms, add them with the courgette later). Keep this over a medium heat for about ten minutes, maybe a little longer, until the onions are really soft.
Add the paprika, courgettes and the stock pot.
Pour in the jhujzzed peppers, add the passata, sprinkle in some Aromat and stir over a low heat for about ten more minutes.
You’ll need a fairly deep oven-proof dish. Lay the pasta in the bottom and spread it out a bit. Pour your sauce mixture over the top. Dot heaped teaspoons of cream cheese all over the shop – as much as you want really.
Pour the stock in, gently around the edges of the dish. Shred up the chicken and sprinkle that over the top.
Finally, cover with grated cheese and bake in the oven at 200° C for about twenty minutes or so. Keep an eye on it, bring it out at the point when the cheese has cooked enough to be delicious.
How it turned out:
As you can see, this made tons, fed three greedy pasta-lovers substantially, with enough left over for another hearty portion each. So … serves six, I guess? Or maybe eight if you were going to serve with some salad and garlic bread.
This will definitely be a repeat – if I had known it was going to turn out so well, I would have taken photos during the process, but as it is you will have to make do with the finished dish. Just before I finished it.
It may look like a long list of ingredients, but it was honestly really quick and easy to make. We all loved it. Red Pepper Pasta Bake being added to the regualr meal rotation as we speak!
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