Baked Pasta
Hello, fellow kitchenistas!
I'm back for another recipe this week. Fully aware that there has been some delays in uploading content, I've been busy setting up my online bakeshop and testing recipes that I'd want to add in the menu. Of course, I still had time to cook and come up with dishes but I completely forgot to take pictures and hence, couldn't upload them on the blog. It excites me that I'm finally able to share another one of my recipes here!
This is my alternative to lasagna. If I want a lasagna but it's been a busy work week, I settle for my baked pasta. And it's actually pretty easy and really tasty, too! So no, you won't be compromising so much on the taste, you're just doing something easy. After all, who has the time to whip up a lasagna when it's a work day, right? This is also my go-to whenever I don't want to cook up rice and wash the rice cooker later. I'm definitely not helping plastic recycling considering I always cook it in an aluminum container but forgive me, I haven't had the time to press checkout for my pending glassware.
Baked Pasta
Serves 4-6
I hope you enjoy making this! Let me know how it turns out and drop a comment below so I'd know you were here! Until our next recipe!
Your friendly neighborhood kitchenista,
I'm back for another recipe this week. Fully aware that there has been some delays in uploading content, I've been busy setting up my online bakeshop and testing recipes that I'd want to add in the menu. Of course, I still had time to cook and come up with dishes but I completely forgot to take pictures and hence, couldn't upload them on the blog. It excites me that I'm finally able to share another one of my recipes here!
This is my alternative to lasagna. If I want a lasagna but it's been a busy work week, I settle for my baked pasta. And it's actually pretty easy and really tasty, too! So no, you won't be compromising so much on the taste, you're just doing something easy. After all, who has the time to whip up a lasagna when it's a work day, right? This is also my go-to whenever I don't want to cook up rice and wash the rice cooker later. I'm definitely not helping plastic recycling considering I always cook it in an aluminum container but forgive me, I haven't had the time to press checkout for my pending glassware.
Baked Pasta
Serves 4-6
- 300-350 grams of ground beef
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium sized onion
- 500 grams pasta of your choice (I used macaroni noodles because I just love how easy they are to cook and so bite sized)
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil, divided (3 tablespoons for the noodles and 1 tablespoon for your pasta sauce)
- 600 grams of ready made tomato pasta sauce (I used Prego's mushroom sauce)
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided (3/4 teaspoon for cooking your noodles and 1/4 for your sauce)
- 1/4 cup shredded or ground parmesan
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
- 1/4 cup shredded mozarella
- Pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup water
- Chopped parsley for garnish
- 1 9x13 pasta glass dish/aluminum pan
- In a large pot, start boiling about 4-5 cups of water for your pasta noodles. Bring it to a boil and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 3/4 teaspoons of salt. Preheat your oven to 180C.
- Grab a pan where you can cook your pasta sauce. Place your ground beef in and wait for it to brown. Now, you can delay this until you've cooked your pasta if you aren't so polished in multi-tasking but I highly recommend you do it simultaneously so that you won't have to set your pasta aside longer later. Feel free to do that though if you think you won't manage! Just sprinkle your pasta with oil when it's cooked and drained and mix it up a bit so that it doesn't dry and stick to each other.
- When your hot water in the pot is boiling again, quickly add the noodles and cook it based on the packet's instructions. Normally I cook mine from 8-10 minutes depending on how I like it that day. At times I like it to be al dente so I cook it for about 8 minutes. Some days I like it over so I cook it for 10 minutes lol
- Set aside the boiling pasta noodles and go back to your pan of ground beef.
- Once they are brown, add the garlic and the onions. Let the onions sweat and break apart a little before adding your tomato sauce.
- Once they sweat and break apart (as I've said lol), add your tomato sauce and 1/4 cup of water and let it boil for about 8-10 minutes. Don't skimp the boiling and sauce reduction even if you are using pre-made tomato sauces in jars. In my opinion, when the sauce reduces, the flavour becomes more intense. I even leave mine past 10 minutes at times and let it boil for about 20. This also makes your beef more tender!
- Your pasta is probably cooked by now, drain them and set aside. Sprinkle with a little bit of oil and fluff it. Fluffing is just basically mixing it a bit so that the oil gets to every piece of pasta!
- Go back to your tomato sauce, season it with salt and pepper and add 1/4 cup of parmesan. Now turn off the heat and just stir making sure the parmesan is well distributed.
- Spread a little bit of your tomato pasta sauce on the base of your aluminum or rectangle dish. Basically you just want a little bit of sauce there before you put on the pasta.
- Now take most of your tomato pasta sauce, just leave the same amount you spread on the bottom for the top layer later. Mix it with the cooked noodles making sure it's all evenly coated.
- Put half of the noodle pasta mix on your aluminum or rectangle dish and sprinkle it with half of your cheddar and mozarella. This makes it have an even distribution of cheese and an even more flavourful bite when it's finished!
- Top it with the remaining tomato pasta sauce and what's left of your cheddar and mozarella.
- Bake it in the oven for 180C for about 20-25 minutes. Allot the last 5 minutes on the broiler setting so you'll get a toasted top of cheese!
- Sprinkle with parsley when done and enjoy!
I hope you enjoy making this! Let me know how it turns out and drop a comment below so I'd know you were here! Until our next recipe!
Your friendly neighborhood kitchenista,
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