Pasta Casserole

Sometime, being a mom and a housewife needs some creativities to make something good for the family using limited resources. The best example is when you need to cook something good for dinner using leftover or limited ingredients because you were too busy to do some shopping. It happens to me almost all the time especially because I have a very active little baby who loves to play (and make a lot of mesh) and an adorable daughter who is still needed to be picked up from school everyday. Beside, I usually cook or make something based on special price on the week in nearby grocery store. When they give special price for ground beef, paprika, and tomatoes, I will make Mexican chilli or stuffed paprika. When they have discount for potatoes, I will make roasted potatoes or hutspot for dinner.

This time, I still have some (about 150 grams) ground beef on my fridge, macaroni, 2 tomatoes, and half a jar of instant bolognese sauce. Well... we have been eating rice for 4 days in a row anyway. I think pasta will be great for dinner then. But I want to make some variation out of it. Hmm... let's see. I sill have a lot of cheese as well. So, I will make some pasta casserole. It's easy to make. Even actually, it can be made from leftover pasta from the day before. It is fast, easy, and delicious. I can pretend it was made fresh from scratch even actually it was made from leftover pasta. Just make sure that the leftover pasta is still edible and taste good. I only need a ovenproof dish or bowl to make this casserole. Transfer the pasta into the dish or bowl and level the surface, drizzle it with some olive oil, cover it with grated cheese, and bake it for about 20 minutes or until the cheese melted and become golden brown. It's so easy, isn't it? And it is a good variation to eat pasta.

Serve it hot with sweet spicy sauce as condiment and salad as a side dish. Perfect. :-)

Ingredients :

• Any leftover pasta that you have
• A lot of grated cheese
• Olive oil

Preparation : 

1. Preheat oven for 180 C (356 F)
2. Prepare an ovenproof dish. Make sure the dish is not too big or too small for the pasta that you have.
3. Drizzle it with some olive oil
4. Transfer the pasta into the dish and level the surface.
5. Drizzle the pasta with some olive oil.
6. Cover it with grated cheese.
   
7. Put it into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese melted and become golden brown. 
   

Tip : If you want your casserole more cheesy and creamy, feel free to add some more grated cheese and few tablespoon of heavy cream on your pasta. Mix well them together before covering those pasta with more grated cheese. You can make this into one portion serving as well by using small ramekin bowl instead of big ovenproof dish.