No Boil Pastitisio (Moussaka Pasta Bake)

Once a week, since January, my youngest two children (13 & 10) take turns making dinner. Sprout, the 13 year old, is obsessed with pasta so when I saw an Ottolenghi recipe for a no boil baked pasta dish it seemed just the ticket to tempt her.  

But my OH was right to say that an Ottolenghi recipe was a step too far for a beginner with only one Jamie Oliver 5 ingredients recipe under her belt. So I googled other no boil pasta dishes to get an idea of quantities of pasta and liquid to which to add a moussaka inspired lamb mince.

Serves 6

350g pasta shapes

500g lamb mince

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 large garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

1 courgette, roughly chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp oregano

1 tsp dried mint

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

500ml milk
500ml recently boiled
1 chicken stock cube
50g grated cheese (feta, parmesan, cheddar)

Put the pasta into a large casserole dish with a well fitting lid.

Blitz the onion, garlic, and courgette in the food processor.

Fry the blitzed vegetables in a saute dish with the olive oil over a medium heat.  Add the minced lamb, break it up, and fry for a few more minutes.  Add the tomato paste, stir through, then add the tin of tomatoes and the herbs and spices.

Pour the contents of the frying pan over the pasta and stir in the milk, hot water and crumbled stock cube.  Put the lid on and bake for 50 minutes, stirring twice during the cooking time pushing the pasta down into the sauce as much as you can.

Finish by removing the lid, sprinkling with cheese, and grilling until the cheese bubbles and starts to go golden brown.

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