Easy Bolognese Pasta Bake

 Baby, it’s cold outside. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

And any other song-related lines you might like to associate with the weather and festive trimmings of this time of year.

I don’t know about you, but all I want to do is curl up on a sofa drinking hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies. Seriously, I can’t even bring myself to eat any cold food at the moment (salad?! what is that?). Which means that I’m constantly craving hot, steamy, comforting meals, preferably ones that I can serve in bowls, like soup. And pasta. If only to warm my hands up next to the oven.

This was why I loved finally having an oven in our apartment in Vienna while we were there visiting the Christmas markets. Remember how I had to suffer through most of September and October with no oven in Turkey? It killed me. And trust me, there’s no way I could survive with winter temperatures in Europe without being able to cook meals like this bolognese pasta bake. So simple. So tasty. And so easy to put together in a country where you can only manage high school level of the local language. I can’t think of a place on earth that doesn’t sell pasta, cheese and beef.

If there is such a place, I never want to go there.

This pasta was also a great money-saving dish for us, as we were able to bake a big dish-full (enough for four people) and eat it over two nights. As a side note – what is it about eating leftovers; they taste sooo much better the second day when all the flavours have seeped into each other.

Anyway, if you’re cold and want to curl up on the sofa with something comforting that you can totally get away with eating out of a bowl, then this is the dish for you.

Easy Bolognese Pasta Bake

Recipe by Julia

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

25

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 white onion, diced

• 1 green bell pepper, diced

• 4 large tomatoes, quartered

• 24oz jar of red pasta sauce (I like Arrabiata for a bit of spice)

• 600g (1 1/2 pounds) minced beef

• 16oz dried pasta (I used penne)

• 1 1/2 cups grated cheese

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
• Set a large pan of water on to boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.
• Brown the minced beef in a small frying pan and then set to one side – place on a plate with some kitchen towel and pat off any excess grease.
• Add a little oil to a large pan and cook the onion and pepper until soft and translucent. Tip in the quartered tomatoes and cook for a couple of minutes until softened. Squish the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon while they cook so that they break down in the pan with the other vegetables. Season with a good pinch of ground pepper.
• Pour the jar of pasta sauce into the pan with the vegetables and simmer for around 10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and is nice and hot. Remove from the heat and stir in the browned mince.
• Drain the cooked pasta and cover the bottom of a large rectangular baking tray with it. Pour over the meat sauce, making sure that the majority of the pasta is covered. Give it a quick stir if needs be.
• Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top and cook in the oven for around 15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and browned slightly.