Wednesday 12 May 2010

Vegetable Pasta Bake

This is a good way to use up stray vegetables that you might have hanging around and that you don't want to waste, and also a good way to feed everyone quite a lot of vegetables without them really noticing.

Finely chop up an onion and fry it gently in some oil in a big pan. Add some garlic and then start adding any vegetables you have.

I finely diced some celery and added that (ssshhh! don't tell anyone about the celery, it's a controversial vegie around here! But no one noticed it was there...)

Add any other finely diced vegetables - I had some choy sum stalks and leaves, a red capsicum and a couple of carrots.

Normally I coarsely grate carrots, as they take a while to cook. This time I diced them and they stayed a little crunchy which I liked.

Add a jar of passata, a little water, some oregano, basil, salt, pepper and sugar. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer gently for half an hour or so.

In the meantime heat up a big pot of water and cook some ravioli or tortellini. I also cooked a little bit of dried pasta to make the meal go a little further. (Use a non-meat-filled pasta for a vegetarian version of this meal obviously.)

Drain the pasta and stir it into the sauce. I always reserve a little of the cooking water before draining, just in case the sauce needs a little extra liquid.

Put the whole lot into a baking dish and top with grated cheese. Put in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes, until the cheese has melted.

Ready to serve.

Our rabbit loves it when we have lots of vegies too!

3 comments:

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

This is a great idea for using up those veges! I usually make a curry but I think hubby would prefer this! :) And what a gorgeously coloured rabbit! :D

Coby said...

Pasta and melting cheese - the troops could then care less what else is in there;)

Obesebaby said...

haha the rabbit doesn't like wasting food. the pasta bake with cheese looks awsome!