Cooking Step by Step: Baked Pasta

Hello Readers!

Yesterday, I felt like making one of my all time favourite dish to make, Baked Pasta! I've tried using Penne and Bowties but 'Elbows' produce the best result as it gives a classic feel to the dish. Below I will share some simple steps to make it, if you too, feel bored at times and just want to cook, like I do!

First things first, Ingredients! I use 'elbows' as my pasta of choice and 2 separate sauces. One sauce would be a white cream based sauce, more like béchamel sauce to give it a good taste and a decent tomato based sauce. I'll explain later why there is a need for 2 sauces in this dish. 

Important Ingredients

Ample (up to you, really) portion of minced meat, preferably beef or mutton to give it a good taste

This is my choice for a white sauce, because it gives this dish a wonderful creamy texture

Okay, next, boil the pasta in a pot of boiling water, along with some olive oil to prevent it from sticking and a pinch of salt for taste (optional).

Once boiled to Al Denté and drain the water

 Then, while waiting for the pasta to cool, you may proceed to cook your minced meat slightly in a pan with some olive oil. Once it's partially cooked, insert the tomato based sauce of your choice and mixed it well until the minced meat is well soaked and coated. You may choose to add garlic as an option to give it an extra 'kick'. 

Minced meat in tomato sauce

 Once the minced meat has been left to cool, begin to coat the tossed pasta into a bowl of your choice and start to coat it well with the white sauce. Make sure it's evenly coated to ensure good taste!

Coating process

 Next, once the coating is complete, take a ramekin or a pyrex dish like mine and butter it first. Then, layer the bottom of the pyrex or ramekin with the pasta. Then add a layer of the cooled minced meat on it. Spread it evenly to get a good chance of tasting it in every bite and continue to fill up the pyrex or ramekin with the pasta until the top.

Layering Process

Fully layered

 Upon completion of layering, cover the top with soft grated mozzarella cheese. Be generous to have a satisfactory meal! 

Cheese Layering

Once you're done, you can wrap it up in clear wrap or bake it in the oven for 25 minutes under 220º Celsius heat until it's nice and golden brown! or in my case, I'm saving it for later :P

Complete!

Good luck and have fun trying!