Anyone following my blog will know by now I never use anything containing artificial ingredients, which is unfortunately what most ready-made pasta sauces have in them. So I make everything from scratch, but thankfully it's not hard if you have enough practice or instructions to follow. This pasta bake is easy and very nutritious, and very tasty! I decided instead of making just a basic white sauce, I would try mixing it with sweet potato puree, and I'm glad I did because it's delicious! It seems to bring out the sweetness of the red onions and peppers too, so a really gorgeous combination of flavours and textures.
Also, I hope you noticed how I arranged the garlic bread on my plate like my @woman-onthe-wing wings!!! A happy fluke at the end :-)
What you will need:
1 large sweet potato (about 400g)
3/4 pint milk
50g butter
100g fine wholewheat flour
2 red onions
1/2 red pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
6+ cloves garlic
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp nutmeg
300g wholewheat pasta
1 cup cheese (grated)
If you would like garlic bread on the side:
To make from scratch please see my Irish Wholewheat Soda Bread recipe, or use any bread of your choice, spread with butter and finely chopped fresh garlic, and sprinkled with oregano.
Method:
Peel and chop the sweet potato into small chunks.
Steam for 10 minutes until soft, then mash into a puree. Set aside.
For the sauce we mix together the milk, butter and flour in a pan. Heat on low-moderate heat, whisking continuously until the sauce is nice and thick (and not lumpy, hence the whisking!)
Add the sweet potato to the sauce, along with the pepper, salt, parsley, oregano, thyme and nutmeg. Mix well.
Wash, peel and dice the onions, peppers and garlic, as fine or chunky as you like.
Put the veg into a casserole dish.
In a large pan, cover the pasta with boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes until almost cooked but not quite.
Drain, and add to the casserole dish.
Add the sweet-potato sauce to the casserole dish, and stir everything up well.
Sprinkle generously with cheese and oregano.
Pop the lid onto the pot, and bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 45 minutes, removing the lid for the last 5 minutes to crisp up the topping.
To make the garlic bread - slice a couple of slice of fresh bread (or use whatever bread you prefer). Finely a few cloves of fresh garlic (amount depending how garlic-y you like it) and mix with enough butter for your bread. Spread generously onto the bread and sprinkle with oregano.
Pop under a hot grill for a few minutes until golden-brown. Turn and toast the underside for another few minutes.
Serve with the pasta, and enjoy!
Many thanks to @englishtchrivy for hosting this challenge, and I'm glad you're accepting 2 entries this time as pasta is so versatile it's hard to choose what to post!
Also many thanks to the sponsors - @smooth, @sirwinchester and @knozaki2015.
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