Cheesy easy pasta bake

With the new year coming, I've been rushing around and upon realising I had not even begun to think of dinner, I found this recipe and adapted it to what I had to hand.

I used any old pasta I had lying around, with various cheeses left over from the fridge. It was just the thing I needed after a long day. Cheesy and creamy with a lovely tomato flavour.

You can make this with a lot of cupboard staples and it takes about 45 minutes in all, 20 of those minutes in oven cooking time.

Ingredients


Pasta 
200-300g pasta (fusilli, penne, macaroni or whatever you have to hand)

Cheese sauce 
600ml milk
110g cheddar cheese, grated
40g plain flour
40g butter
I added a tiny pinch of nutmeg, but I'm a nutmeg fiend.

Tomato sauce 
2 x cloves of garlic, diced up or sliced
1 onion, diced
2 x tinned plum tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp basil

To top 
1 cup of grated cheese. Mozzarella, a little parmesan, whatever cheese you have available. I used up some edam and cheddar, with a small sprinkling of parmesan for a lovely flavour.

Directions


Tomato sauce 
Preheat oven to 180C.

Slice or chop up some garlic into small pieces. Dice an onion up and add some olive oil to a pan. Heat to medium-high and add your vegetables. Cook until soft.

Add two tins of plum tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of sugar and about 1 teaspoon of basil. Bring to the boil and turn down to a low simmer to cook whilst you make your cheese sauce.

Cheese sauce
Put 40g of butter in a pan and slowly melt on low, add 40g plain flour and keep stirring for about 3 minutes.

Take off heat and very gradually start adding your 600ml of milk little by little, stirring the whole time to avoid lumps.

Once smooth and glossy put it back on the heat, stir continuously otherwise you'll get a lumpy sauce. Bring to the boil slowly and simmer on low for about 4 minutes.

After 4 minutes it should be lovely and creamy. Start adding your cheese to it bit by bit and keep stirring to melt. Take off the heat and allow to cool, stirring every five-ten minutes to keep it nice and smooth.

Pasta and topping
Boil some water in a big pan and add your pasta. Cook for about 12 minutes or until al-dente, drain, rinse with boiled water and put in a deep baking pan.


Using a wooden spoon, break up your plum tomatoes in your sauce.

Pour your tomato sauce onto the pasta and then pour over your cheese sauce. Add your mozzarella or grated cheese on top and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.