Pasta Bakes - recipe ideas?

Lyndsay_21

i love homepride pasta bake :drool: you put the pasta in raw and it cooks in 45mins, one of my guilty pleasures!!!

Bargain_Rzl

I use the following recipe which I found on the web somewhere. It makes enough for 6-8 portions and usually takes up two oven dishes at once!

Ingredients:
The equivalent of 4-6 chicken breasts, diced (though I use whichever bit of boneless chicken I happen to have at the time)
1 large bunch spring onions
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
Mushrooms
500g fusilli pasta
The equivalent of 1 jar of tomato sauce with herbs and onions - sometimes I use HM, otherwise Lidl
Dash of Lea & Perrins
2 rounds of mozzarella

Cook the pasta until al dente. Meanwhile, chop up and fry the chicken, peppers, mushrooms and (later) the spring onions.
Drain the pasta and mix in the contents of the frying pan along with the tomato sauce and Lea & Perrins.
Mix well, transfer to oven dish(es) and top with the mozzarella, ripped up.
Cook on Gas Mark 4 for about 20 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbling.

It's yummy but it creats loads of washing up and uses 2 hob rings plus the oven :eek:

janeawej

i have just made one! this time i made a basic cheese sauce then poured it over cooked pasta, and put grated cheese on top, realy a basic macaroni cheese, sometimes i put cooked chopped chicken or ham into it, or some peppers or onions, today i just sprinkled crispy bacon over the top!

another one i make i use either a homemade or a brought pasta tomatoe sauce mix with cooked pasta chicken ect as before, and bake, sometimes i top it with a cheese sauce or just breadcrumba and grated cheese, there are many variations! just experiment!!

poodlehorse

Oooh I did a search for pasta bake in the hope you would all say you could do it with uncooked pasta as I am going to be without my kitchen for a few weeks while we get a new one and all I will have is my slow cooker and a combi microwave and steamer. Can pasta bakes be frozen well do you think? I could make some for the freezer in that case. DS will happily live on pasta but not much else so I am worried about what he will eat if no pasta on the menu.

katmad99

i never cook the pasta first.
i used to use homepride/adsa jars but now i just use a tin of tomatoes and then a tin-full of water (a bit like what you do with the jars) add uncooked pasta and veg (i dont use meat unless it's chorizo, but if i used chiken i'd cook it first.)
Leave it in the oven for abour 35-45 mins, stirr a few times during, bit of cheese on top near the end.
never goes stodgy or horrible, always v yummy.

Sunshine_and_Roses

If I have leftover cooked chicken (normally the bits that no one wants to eat in sandwiches), I chuck this in a pan witha large tin of chicken or mushroom condensed soup, some mushrooms or sweetcorn or peas, and then some cooked pasta (ususally cook it for 10 mins if the instructions say 12 mins).

When it has all mixed together, I put it in a dish in the oven, and sprinkle some breadcrumbs mixed with a bit of grated cheese. I have also discovered a good way for using up Tesco value cheese puffs or onion rings is to crush these and put on the top of pasta bakes. No one knows the difference

Sunshine_and_Roses

If I have leftover cooked chicken (normally the bits that no one wants to eat in sandwiches), I chuck this in a pan witha large tin of chicken or mushroom condensed soup, some mushrooms or sweetcorn or peas, and then some cooked pasta (ususally cook it for 10 mins if the instructions say 12 mins).

When it has all mixed together, I put it in a dish in the oven, and sprinkle some breadcrumbs mixed with a bit of grated cheese. I have also discovered a good way for using up Tesco value cheese puffs or onion rings is to crush these and put on the top of pasta bakes. No one knows the difference

hazzie123

You cant beat bacon and leek pasta bake! Homemade of course!

poodlehorse

katmad99 you have inspired me!! I am going to give it a go with uncooked and see what happens. What veg do you put in normally?

orchid-96

Hi, I notice a lot of people mention 'pasta bakes' on their mealplans/cheap meal ideas...can anyone give me any ideas as to how to make them?

I do a tuna mayo salad one (cold) but have only ever done a bake with one of those jar sauces.. I would love to just do them as ds loves pasta and also I often have leftover Chicken (from a roast) so one with chicken would be good...

Sorry if this seems a silly question, but I planned to do one last week and when I started to think about what would go in it, I was lost