This year, the weather forecasters have been warning of an incredibly hard winter. Looking out of my window, I am forced to concede that they may be right. At noon today, the pavement outside is still liberally dusted with shimmering frost and the apple tree in the back garden still sports its own covering of hoar frost. Brrr.
So, what better to combat the chill of winter than a hearty, baked dinner?
The recipe which follows is from the hallowed tomes of Cooking Light. Yes, I'm still dieting--18.5 pounds down and being jabbed by re-emerging bones--hence the lack of posts recently. I've tweaked it to suit our tastes and the amount of WW points that I'm willing to 'spend' on dinner. The dish is especially good served with a selection of steamed seasonal vegetables.
For those of you who are baulking at the thought of cooking the sauce for two hours--make a double, or even a triple batch and freeze it in individual portions. This will give you a very quick prep time for subsequent dinners. I know that the long cooking time is a bit off-putting, but it does create a wonderful, intense sauce. I'm currently using this marinara recipe for all my tomato sauce needs.
Enjoy!
Baked Penne with Beef
Adapted from Cooking Light.
Serves 2 greedy dieters at 10WW (UK) points each. Or 3 not-so-hungry people with a side of some sort.
Sauce:
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup finely chopped onion (half a medium-large onion, roughly)
1/2 cup chopped orange pepper (half a large pepper, roughly)
2 cloves garlic, crushed.
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup (60ml) red wine
1 14oz can chopped tomatoes
approx 400ml passata (sieved/puréed tomatoes--thicker than tomato juice but not as thick as paste)
2 cups (500ml) water
3 tbsp sun-dried (or regular) tomato purée (paste in the US)
1 tablespoon dried basil
(optional: 1 tablespoon of dried oregano, half added close to the end).
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
good grinding of pepper
pinch of crushed chilli flakes (I used closer to a heaped teaspoon--be careful!)
Heat oil. Add onion, pepper, garlic and oregano and sauté for five minutes until vegetables are softened.
Add remainder of ingredients and bring to a simmer. It should be thin and soupy.
Cook at a low simmer for at least two hours. The sauce will reduce by half and darken in colour. Check seasoning. It should be sweet, smooth--in flavour, not texture--with a good herby flavour. Adjust seasoning if necessary.
Beef
1/2 pound extra-lean beef mince (ground beef)
pinch crushed chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon oregano
pinch salt
good grind pepper.
Heat pan to medium-hot. Add the beef and stir well--you don't want large chunks of meat. Throw in the seasonings and cook, stirring, until the beef is no longer pink.
Assembly
150g tube pasta--I used penne as that's what was in the cupboards. No idea of the cup measurement here
28g (1 oz) freshly grated parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 180C/450F/Gas Mark 4.
Cook pasta, shortening cooking time by approx 2 minutes. The pasta will continue to cook in the oven.
Combine drained pasta with 2 cups sauce (approx 2/3 of sauce quantity), beef and about a quarter of the cheese. Turn into a suitable dish prepared with cooking spray. Sprinkle remaining parmesan on top. Bake for 20 minutes until cheese is bubbly.
Notes:
* The original sauce recipe called for 28oz tinned tomatoes, and 3oz tomato paste, with a cooking time of... 30 minutes. I threw a fit and lengthened the cooking time to two hours. If I'd had time, I would have cooked the sauce for four hours. I don't think you can make a good marinara in anything less than two hours.
*The recipe also included part-skim mozzarella. I would have used this if I'd had any. I'm sure it would have been really gooey and lovely.
*You get a lot of meat/sauce to pasta with this recipe. If I wasn't dieting, I'd have upped the pasta to 200g.
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Comments
This long-lost comment has been restored from backup.
That looks yummy! I'll have to try that sometime
1. Posted by Tawcan on November 19, 2007
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Sounds delicious, I have been doing heaps of long slow cookin glately, find it is lovely on a cold Sunday afternoon to put the pot on the stove then lie around reading or whatever smelling the wonderful aroma fill the house & its always worth the wait. Also do the big batches & freeze for other lazy or busy days where I cant be bothered - works great
2. Posted by Ange on November 19, 2007
I am so glad I found this recipe! This sounds and looks really good. I am soooo happy because I orer my beef from Celebrity Foods and when my order came in today, this was the first thing i did....look for recipe's!!! hahaha!! I will respond back to let you know how everything turns out. Thank you for the recipe!
3. Posted by leo on January 9, 2008