Food for the Soul

Penne with Mozarella and Parmesan

A great savoury dish and a weekly regular in our house. Quick, easy to make and it's veggie too. This makes enough for two. Just scale up as required. It can be done really quickly with practice and the oven time at the end allows the mess to be cleared away before sitting down to a bowl of delicious pasta.

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tin chopped tomatoes (with nothing added)
Basil leaves
250g Mozarella, cut into 1cm cubes (real Bufallo Mozarella in brine, not the hard crappy stuff)
100g Parmesan, grated (please grate from a block, don't use ready grated look-alikes from a tub)
Salt to taste (I find 1 teaspoon per tin of tomatoes a good guide for anything)
Ground pepper to taste
Dried red chillis or some chilli powder if you like it "arrabiata"
250g Penne pasta

Method

Put on a big pot of salted boiling water for the pasta. Pre-heat the oven to a medium-hot temperature, about 180°-200°.

Put the chopped onions in some olive oil and soften them gently till the onions are translucent and soft. This can take up to 20 minutes.

Add the garlic once the onions are soft. (Garlic cooks much quicker than the onions and easily burns to the bottom of the pan if put in too early.)

Put the penne in the boiling water. I use dried penne and it takes about 10 minutes to cook.

While the penne cooks add the tomatoes, salt and chilli (if using) to the onions and garlic. Let this simmer gently.

Drain the penne when cooked.

Put the penne in a shallow oven proof dish. Cover with the tomato sauce. Add the chopped mozarella and half the grated parmesan. Add a pile of basil leaves, tearing them into the dish. Now mix up to cover the pasta and distribute the sauce.

Lastly sprinkle with the remaining parmesan and bang it in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Tips

Clear up while the dish is in the oven. You'll enjoy it more.

This is a great TV dinner served in a pasta bowl. I find about 125g of pasta per person is fine. And 1 tin of tomatoes between 2 people.

I really like the arrabiata version (with the chilli). I've sometimes jazzed it up with some bacon or other stuff but I think the simple original is best.

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