This bake is the perfect comfort food for a chilly winters night. It’s a great family dish that freezes well, so make up more than you need for when you need a healthy meal in minutes. You’ll discover the courgette, bacon and chilli work extremely well together to make an easy and interesting dish. What’s more, you’ll find there’s very little to wash up afterwards!
Ingredients
1tbsp of olive oil
2 rashers of smoked bacon
2 cloves of garlic
1 white onion
2 mild red chillies
2 courgettes
1 red pepper
1tbsp of chopped basil
300g of Wholemeal pasta
1 slice of toasted brown bread
50g of grated cheddar cheese
WEIGHT CONVERTER
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Method
Pre-heat oven to 190°C/375°F/Fan 170°C/Gas Mark 8.
Chop the bacon into nice bite size chunks and fry in a frying pan along with the olive oil.
While the bacon fries, peel and finely chop the garlic, onion and chilli. Chop the courgettes and red pepper.
Boil a kettle of water and add the freshly boiled water to a saucepan and add the pasta. The pasta needs to be just cooked, which dependent on the brand of pasta, should take about 10 minutes.
Once the bacon is crispy, add the contents of the frying pan to an oven proof dish along with all the chopped vegetables.
Drain your pasta and add to the ovenproof dish. Give the ingredients a good mix and add the chopped basil. Now put the dish in the over for 10 minutes.
While your dish is bubbling away in the oven, toast your bread and allow to cool.
Place your cooled toast in a food processer and add the grated cheese. Blitz the mixture to a fine breadcrumb.
After the dish has been in the over for 10 minutes, take the dish out and spread the bread crumbs over the top of the casserole and return to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are a golden brown.
Top Tip for making Courgette, bacon and chilli pasta bake
Try replacing the cheddar with 50g of a blue cheese to add more depth and richness to the flavour of the dish.
Prawn pasta with cherry tomatoes and lemon
