Baked Beef Pasta

Usually, we don't have beef in our meals.  It's very rare that we buy this meat as what we all know, it's red meat and it's not really good for the health. But I guess having it once in a while won't be a bad thing, right? (I'm just trying to reason out here - Haha!) I wanted to make lasagna but I wanted to try a different pasta so I opted to use the shells this time.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams Conchiglie pasta, cooked per instructions
• 200 grams lean ground beef
• 200 grams button mushrooms, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 200 grams roasted tomatoes
• half an onion, sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 jar of Leggo's Stir Through Sun Dried Tomato and Garlic Sauce
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1tsp dried basil
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• sea salt
• coarsely ground black pepper

Directions:

1. In a pan, heat olive oil. Saute onion, garlic then mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Add beef. Cook thoroughly for about 10-15 minutes to avoid contamination. Season with salt and
3. pepper. Let simmer for 10 minutes. 
4. Stir in tomato sauce, roasted tomatoes, oregano and basil. Adjust taste according to your liking.
5. Mix in cooked pasta and make sure everything is coated with the sauce. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.
6. In an oven proof dish, arrange the pasta. Top with mozzarella or monterey jack. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cheese melts.
7. Serve while hot.

Recipe guide: Allrecipes.com

Cooked pasta mixed with sauce

I only used this as a guide because I had a totally different dish in mind but had a hard time looking up for the specific recipe.  I wanted to use bechamel sauce but since I ran out of milk, I just used mozzarella cheese as a topping and popped the pasta into the oven for about 20 minutes.

The Husband likes the roasted tomatoes and so did I. You see, I rarely like veggies. I knerrrr, that's why I'm looking for some ways to cook veggies in a nice way so I don't get so scared of them. Hee hee :) I'll post my oven-roasted tomatoes recipe next time. That's it for now. Goodnight and Gong Xi Fa Cai from the Fine City!