One-pot bubbling, golden, tomato-y, cheesy pasta bake, your NEED to make this! It takes a little bit of time, but hands-on it’s only 10 minutes or so work, the oven does the rest, it couldn’t easier! This is also a great dish to make ahead of time, you can make the sauce ahead of time and when ready to serve just bil some pasta, mix it together with the sauce, add cheese and bake in the oven!
Inspired by the amazing @theoriginaldish
Butter Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 500 g regular tomatoes, quartered
- 300 g cherry tomatoes, left whole
- 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 3-4 garlic cloves, peeled, left whole
- 2-3 thyme sprigs, left whole
- Fresh or dried oregano leaves
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Pepper & Salt
- 3-4 tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 50 g parmesan cheese, grated
- 200 g grated mozarella
- 1 mozzarella ball
- 400 g pasta, I like large shaped pasta works best in this dish, like rigatoni or conchiglioni
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
In a large bowl add the first 9 ingredients of the list (tomatoes up until pepper and salt). Toss to coat and pour into a heavy based, oven proof skillet or a baking dish.
Divide the butter in between the tomatoes and bake in the oven for 1 hour and 15 min.
About 15 min before the end of cooking add the pasta to salted boiling water and cook 1 minutes less than mentioned on the packaging.
Remove the tomato mix from the oven, take out the thyme twigs and tougher oregano twigs and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth, taste and season with pepper, salt and a pinch of sugar. Wipe the pan clean and pour in the blended sauce.
Turn on the heat and bring to a simmer, add the parmesan cheese, stir well until melted.
Drain the pasta when done and add to the sauce. Stir well to coat and bring to a bubble.
Turn off the heat, sprinkle the grated mozzarella over the top and tear the mozzarella ball into pieces and dived over the top.
Turn the oven up to 230°C and bake in the oven for 10 min until bubbling and golden on top.
Notes
If making ahead of time make until step 5 (so you have a blended sauce). The sauce wil keep for a few months in the freezer and up to 4-5 days in the fridge (in an airtight container). When ready to serve just heat the sauce in the heavy based skillet and continue with step 6.