Creamy ham pasta

Sometimes you just want something comforting to nosh on, and today is one of those days for me.  Pasta it is!

This is creamy and cheesy and moreish, perfect for a cold and foggy autumn evening, the like of which is murking outside my door.

Winner with the snarflings, cheap and easy.  If you don't have an obliging local butcher who sells reasonably-priced ham offcuts - and if that's the case, move to the Valleys, I'll introduce you to mine - you can use bacon, or roast a small bacon or ham joint and hack it up into bitty bits.

Creamy ham pasta - serves 4, or 2 adults and 2 snarflings with worky leftovers

500g pack of pasta
some butter or spread suitable for cooking
some plain flour
some milk
about 150g strong cheddar, grated
some black pepper
4-5 spring onions, finely chopped
small tin of sweetcorn, drained
approx 300g ham offcuts,  chopped or torn into small pieces

Put the pasta on to boil.

Use the butter, flour and milk to make a bechamel sauce.  PLEASE don't make me give you quantities.  I don't weigh things, I do it all by eye, so trying to tell you how much to use is really awkward.  I would suggest doubling this basic recipe for this dish.  It will also tell you how to make the bechamel, or white, sauce, which will stand you in good stead to make 785615783664 other yummy things.

Classic bechemel sauce

When the sauce is made, stir in the cheese, pepper to taste, spring onion and sweetcorn.  Drain the pasta when it's cooked, return to the pan, add the ham and stir the sauce through until everything is cheesily coated.  You can add more grated cheese on top when you serve, if you're having a real inneedofcheese day.

Faux-Pastitsio

Or as a friend's son likes to say, "Pasta Tits".

Pastitsio is a Greek pasta dish, there are various versions of it served up in Cyrpus and other Mediterranean countries.  This is nothing like an authentic recipe, it's been tweaked to make it quick and easy and also much healthier.  If you are following Slimming World you should be able to adapt this easily to make it a free dish on Green or Extra Easy if you use the cheese as a Healthy Extra (you'll need to ensure you use fat free natural yoghurt and reduce the cheese or make yours in a separate dish with less cheese).

This is suitable for vegetarians, obviously you can substitute the veggie mince with real meat if you prefer.

This makes a large dish to feed 4 adults or 2 adults, 2 kids and a leftover portion for lunch.  If you're cooking for 2, I'd recommend halving quantities and making a smaller one, the cheesy topping doesn't freeze well.

Pastisio

approx 300g dried pasta
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 punnet mushrooms, halved
1/2 bag frozen vegetarian 'mince'
1 carton/tin chopped tomatoes
1 carton passata
teaspoon dried herbs
clove garlic, crushed/teaspoon of jarred galic or garlic granules
teaspoon ground cinnamon
olive oil
large carton natural or greek yoghurt, any fat content
2 eggs, beaten
200g cheddar cheese

Put the pasta on to boil.  Cook for 5-6 minutes, until softened but not fully cooked, drain and set aside.

Heat a splash of oil in a saucepan and saute the onion for a few minutes until soft.  Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes more.  Tip in the frozen mince and cook for another few minutes, stirring frequently as it's prone to sticking.  You can add a little splash of hot water if it does.

Add the tomatoes, passata, garlic, herbs and cinnamon to the pan and simmer for 6=7 minutes until thickened.  Mix with the pasta and tip into a baking dish.

In a bowl, mix the yoghurt, cheese and beaten eggs.  You can add a little ground black pepper if you like.

Tip the chesy mix over the top of the pasta/mince, smooth over but don't mix it in, it needs to be a separate layer on top.

Pop in a hot oven for 15 minutes until the topping is risen, bubbly and golden brown.

Serve to hungry people:

Convertadinner!

It's one of the banes of my life that my husband won't eat tuna pasta.  Tuna pasta is bloody lovely, plus it's cheap, filling and full of protein and carbs and general good stuff.

Bloody husband!

I amdetermined to feed it to the snarflings though, so tonight's dinner effort was something of a convertadinner - tuna pasta for them, pasta bake with creamy tomato sauce and bacon for us.  This is how I did it!

Make 1 quantity basic tomato sauce, and cook a pack of pasta.

When the sauce is thick and bubbling, turn off the heat and add 1/2 a tub of creme fraiche.  

Hive off 4 serving spoons of the cooked pasta into a bowl.  Add 1 tin of drained tuna chunks* and 1/2 a tin of drained chickpeas.  Put the rest in a tub in the fridge for future adventures - I'm making dhal tomorrow so my lonely chickpeas will be happy to be squished into that.  Add enough of the creamy tomatoey sauce to coat.  Pop into bowls, sprinkle with grated cheese, serve to ravening snarflings.

Now, onto the grownup dinner.

Snip 6 rashers of good quality smoked bacon into strips, and fry in a little olive oil until crisp.  Refresh the pasta with some boiling water from the kettle, shake dry, and tip into an oven dish.  Mix in the bacon and the rest of the creamy sauce.  Top with grated cheese and bake for 15 minutes in a hot oven until the cheese is golden.  This is more than enough for two, you will have leftovers, which can be frozen or portioned up for lunch the following day.  I send the husbeast off to work with leftovers in a tupperware box, because that's just the kind of amazing, nurturing wife I am.

* - Tuna tip - I like a bargain but not at the expense of the environment. Sainsbury's basics tuna chunks in brine, also their regular own brand tinned tuna, is fished by pole and line instead of trawling, which is less harmful to the environment and other marine life, is dolphin friendly, and it's only 45p a tin!