Hang on what? BAKED pasta Beth? I know! It’s confusing isn’t it? Cooking pasta in the oven. But then think about it, it’s kind of like lasagne right? Bear with me. I was picking up Harper from school a few weeks ago when our lovely office admin Sally came and found me to tell me about a recipe she had made from this month (or maybe it’s last now) Delicious Mag – an Ottolenghi baked bolognese in the oven which she tried and loved. She had printed out the recipe for me to make and FINALLY I got around to doing it last weekend.
I kind of winged some of it because it was all I could find after going into two separate supermarkets and I have a rule (that I just made up now) that if you can’t get what you need for a ONE pot dish in two supermarkets, you just have to make do with what you can find.
This is kind of like a lasagne (mostly because I couldn’t find the manicotti pasta that he suggested and I was out of dried cannelloni pasta (because I used that last week) so used some cut up lasagne sheets which are kind of the same/same/different. The girls all loved this and ate it up. I’ll definitely make it again and tweak some bits of it and see if I can find the harissa paste he was talking about which would give it a flavour and spice punch. The thing that has amazed me with this is the POSSIBILITY of cooking pasta in the oven in other ways. Especially for crowds of people. It’s SO easy. Who knew?!
Ottolenghi’s One-pan Pasta with Harissa Bolognese
680 grams beef mince
450 grams pork mince (I literally chucked in a whole packet of each)
1/3 cup (95g) tomato paste
1/4 cup (75g) harissa paste
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs ground cumin
1 tbs ground coriander
1/2 cup (80 g) olive oil
60 g Parmesan (finely grated)
60 g Pecorino (finely grated)
1 carrot (peeled and sliced)
1 small onion (roughly chopped)
2 large roma tomatoes (roughly chopped)
4 garlic cloves (peeled and roughly chopped)
3 cups (750 ml) chicken stock
100 mls cream
225 dried pasta (manicotti or cannelloni shells roughly chopped in half)
1/4 cup parsley (roughly chopped)
Note: I could not find harissa paste anywhere so found this which I thought would kind of do the job. It was delicious but had no spice to it which I think was missing. The girls said it tasted like taco mince at the end which kind of makes sense when I see what was in this. Do your best. Ottolenghi suggests a Tunisian brand of harissa but hey, I live in Burrawang.
1. Preheat the oven to 245 degrees C
2. Peel the onion, garlic & carrot and roughly chop and place into a food processor along with roughly chopped roma tomatoes and blitz until finely chopped
3. Into your roasting pan throw in the mince, the spices, tomato paste, harissa (or otherwise) paste, worcestershire sauce with a little of the oil and cheese (about 1/3 of the oil and 2/3 of the cheese) and then give it a good mix about. I used my hands
4. Then whack on the food processor mix and combine with the meat and season with salt & pepper
5. Whack into that stinking hot oven for 25 mins until browned on top and sizzling and turn the heat down to 190C
6. Cut your pasta in half on an angle (I think the cannelloni tubes would have been better but I only has lasagne sheets)
7. Take the meat out of the oven and break the meat apart with a fork and give it all a big mix around in the liquid that is in there. Add in the chicken stock and cream, mix and then add in the dried pasta wedging it into the liquid and trying to submerge it under the meat and sauce and getting it wet so it doesn’t burn. Bake for another 25 mins and give it a stir half way through to check pasta is cooking and nothing is too burnt
8. Just before the end whack on the rest of the oil and cheese to brown up and then top with chopped parsley (which I didn’t have sorry Yotam)
The girls really enjoyed this and I must say it was pretty good. Kind of like a different spiced lasagne…I will tweak the flavours and make again for sure, particularly when feeding crowds of people as it was so easy.
One-pan pasta with harissa bolognese
Ingredients
- 680 grams Beef mince
- 450 grams pork mince I used 500 gram packets of each
- 1/3 cup tomato paste 95 grams
- 1/4 cup harissa paste 75 grams
- 2 tbs ground cumin
- 2 tbs ground coriander
- 2 tbs worcesterhsire sauce
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 60 grams parmesan finely grated
- 60 grams pecorino finely grated
- 1 carrot peeled
- 1 onion peeled
- 2 large roma tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 100 mls cream
- 225 grams dried pasta cut in half diagonally
- 1/4 cup parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 245 degrees C
- Peel the onion, garlic & carrot and roughly chop and place into a food processor along with roughly chopped roma tomatoes and blitz until finely chopped
- Into your roasting pan throw in the mince, the spices, tomato paste, harissa (or otherwise) paste, worcestershire sauce with a little of the oil and cheese (about 1/3 of the oil and 2/3 of the cheese) and then give it a good mix about. I used my hands
- Then whack on the food processor mix and combine with the meat and season with salt & pepper
- Whack into that stinking hot oven for 25 mins until browned on top and sizzling and turn the heat down to 190C
- Cut your pasta in half on an angle (I think the cannelloni tubes would have been better but I only has lasagne sheets)
- Take the meat out of the oven and break the meat apart with a fork and give it all a big mix around in the liquid that is in there. Add in the chicken stock and cream, mix and then add in the dried pasta wedging it into the liquid and trying to submerge it under the meat and sauce and getting it wet so it doesn't burn. Bake for another 25 mins and give it a stir half way through to check pasta is cooking and nothing is too burnt
- Just before the end whack on the rest of the oil and cheese to brown up and then top with chopped parsley (which I didn't have sorry Yotam)
Have you ever made a one pot pasta dish before?
Like the ones where you cook the pasta, liquid and sauce all together?
Tell us all everything!
This looks excellent. I took to cooking ny lasagne in the slow cooker last year and I reckon this would work well too. I love baked pasta but often baulk at the two step process – cook and then bake pasta – but this may just have revolutionised my repertoire. Also, you can make harissa paste pretty simply if you can’t find it next time(I’m sure I bought my tube in woolies). There’s a simple recipe on the taste website.
I need to get a slow cooker…can you believe I don’t have one?!
Yes! I’ve made the one pot pasta recipe similar to the Martha Stewart/Donal Skehan one on YouTube. One pot ANYTHING gets my vote these days.
Have you tried dump cakes? Really unfortunate name… but it’s next on my list. One pan cake? Yes ploise!
No I have not….googles dump cake immediately!
Harissa paste is always available for me in Coles. I also used the powder which has a smokier flavour, when I cook fried eggs for my breakfast. Sprinkle on when egg is broken into pan.
You could also try chilly flakes which will just give heat, not spice, or the killer chilli oil we reserve for HOT dishes.
Thanks so much – I was looking in entirely the wrong section!
This meatball bake from Woolies is also a winner. To boost veggies I made my own meatballs and also hide lots of grated veggies in the pasta sauce. It was an absolute winner and I would definitely make again.
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/recipedetail/4637/meatball-casserole
Oh that looks good – thank you!
Harissa paste in tube is in the supermarket near the dried herbs and spices 😁
Got it on the weekend – thanks! Don’t know why I didn’t look there!
If you want the Rose Harissa he uses its available online from The Essential Ingredient. Most of his other ingredients too
Thanks for the tip Claire!
thanks beth
i love his food … and he is lovely!
just say’n lolmxx
Ha! He sure is.
Hi Beth,
do you think any leftovers could be frozen?
The chicken should be ok for sure.I haven’t tried though.