Lazy Ass Cooking (recipe included).

I randomly came up with this idea for a hybrid mac & cheese / veggie bake and it turned out rather well so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. It's really easy even for me who is a bit crap at cooking, and can be modified depending on your tastes (except if you hate cheese, then you're pretty much out of luck).

Ingredients:
12oz (340g) box of spiral pasta
or "salad twirls" as they are fancily called here. I used the "rainbow' kind (where some are orangey and some are green) to add interest.

about 8 mushrooms, sliced
you can use different veggies like maybe broccoli, peas or whatever if you prefer. Chunks of cooked chicken or little bits of ham or bacon would also work well, I think.

1 clove garlic, minced
or finely chopped if your mincer got broken and you haven't bought a new one yet because they are all like fifteen dollars and what the eff?

1 nice tomato
I bought a vine-ripened one specially because they actually have flavor unlike their pale multi-pack cousins.

1 small jar four-cheese alfredo pasta sauce

1 metric ton* grated cheese
*Not really. 2 or 3 large handfuls should do.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350º F (or whatever it is in Celsius if you are not American. Google it, okay?)

Cook the spiral pasta until just a bit chewy - slightly less done than al dente - drain in a colander when it's done.

While the pasta is cooking, sautée the mushrooms and garlic with a bit of oil, until the mushrooms are not raw any more, but not quite done. Chop the tomato into large chunks and chuck it in with the mushrooms at the end so the tomato mixes in and gets a little bit heated. (if you are doing different veggies, just cook them until they're almost done. I feel like I chucked in some basil or possibly oregano flakes at this point but not sure. You may enjoy pepper or other spices.)

Mix the veggies in with the drained pasta in the pasta pot. Add the alfredo sauce and a big handful of grated cheese. I guess it'd be like a half cup or maybe a bit less, I have little hands.

Put a bit of water in the bottom of a ceramic lasagna dish / pan thingy. Pour the pasta mix into the dish and spread it out evenly. I also filled the empty alfredo sauce jar about a third full with water and swished it to around to mix with the sauce left in the jar, then added that to the dish and mixed it all in; you get all the sauce and the water helps it to not dry out when baking.

Then cover the lot with a bunch of grated cheese. Make it not totally covered, so you can still see some bits of pasta poking out; that way they will get crispy & make nice texture.

Bake it in the oven for about 40 minutes or until the cheese on top is perfectly golden brown.

It serves 4 or two really hungry people.


I find I really can't be arsed cooking anything complicated on weeknights so I will probably make this a lot from now on. Do you have any similarly easy (hopefully vegetarian) dishes in your repertoire?