Pasta bake with Easy-Peasy-Creamy Bechamel Sauce and Whatever Meat Sauce You Have On Hand

It was another hectic day with a teething one-year-old and a hyperactive 3 year-old who wanted to be entertained all the time. So at any point in time I was either comforting a little girl on my hip or playing with an energetic boy, trying my best to keep it together and at the same time hoping that I am giving them both enough attention and engaging them intellectually enough. All between not losing my temper. Sounds like another day in motherhoodland? Oh wait, to top it all of, it is now time for lunch. Now what is a mother who doesn't want to feed her children out of pre-cooked cans and bottles to do? The answer is nothing short of a lifesaver - Leftovers.

Do not snob the power of leftovers nosiree. I always appreciate reading what other people do with their leftovers so that I have a ready arsenal of ready-set-go meals for a hectic day. These leftovers have soothed many a frantic mealtimes. So when I opened my fridge to see a bowl of chilli con carne from last night I decided to stretch and transform them to something with pasta. And this pasta bake is what I came up with. You are of course free to cook your own meat sauce if you are luxuriously blessed with time or feel the inclination to cook.   Thus with my 2 toddlers plonked in front of Dora the Explorer for the next 20 minutes (that is how I time my cooking nowadays), I said a prayer to the kitchen gods that I will have no accidents and set to work.

THE PASTA 

I tend to use Fussili and Penne as they are easier to serve, and can be eaten with the fingers too, as my children are inclined to do.. For the 3 of us, I use 250g.

Boil 2 litres of water and cook the pasta according to packet instructions. While that is cooking you get a saucepan out and start on the bechamel sauce.

THE BECHAMEL SAUCE

I have a foolproof recipe that goes like this :

1 tablespoon butter (with a splash of any oil on top to stop it from burning)
1 tablespoon of all purpose flour to be added when the butter has melted.
1 glass of milk (approximately 250ml, of full-fat or low fat or what you prefer)

This 1-1-1 recipe is easy to remember right? Now just stir the milk into the butter-flour mixture with a pinch of salt and pepper and I like to add some granulated garlic as well. Feel free to dress it up or down with paprika or nutmeg and various dried herbs (I used dried Italian herb mix). Then stir frequently until it becomes of a creamy soup consistency, about 20 min.

At this point, your pasta would've been cooked, your bechamel sauce ready and your leftover meat sauce would be out of the fridge. Time for assembly.



Ready? Set. Go!


Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Stir the meat sauce into the pasta. Scoop a layer of bechamel sauce onto the bottom of an overproof casserole dish and top that layer with the pasta mixture. Keep adding these alternate layers, ending with the bechamel sauce. Finish off with a layer of grated parmesan cheese and slide that gorgeous gratin onto the middle rack of the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the parmesan has melted and is all bubbly (bubbly cheese is always good isn't it? Makes me think of all sorts of delicious things with bubble cheese on top like pizza, lasagne, mac and cheese...but I digress).

At the end of 20 mins, the pasta bake will be in the oven and I will inevitably be with the kids watching another episode of Dora. By the time that episode is over, lunch is ready! Woohoo! Bring the dish out onto the table and let the kids watch as you ladle it onto their plates. I always feel that that part is necessary as it whets their appetites to see and smell what they their tastebuds will be tasting shortly. Oh and don't forget to tell them to blow their food first.

Mission accomplished.