Bacon and mushroom pasta traybake

Now please tell me that you agree with me – bacon and mushroom pasta is one of the best sauce combinations! Pasta is a standard staple ingredient in most houses I think, whether it is whole wheat or gluten free it is the fastest meal you can make at home for everyone to enjoy. The ingredients for this bacon and mushroom pasta is what I usually use for the family if we feel like a creamy pasta sauce.

Easy and efficient cooking

I am at a phase now that I’m looking to develop recipes that require the least amount of dirty utensils, less clean up and less cooking time. So I wanted to turn this family favourite into one as well. You only need a flameproof baking dish and a chopping board. No frying pans or pasta utencils or a separate pot to cook the pasta is needed. If you don’t have a flameproof baking dish, then that’s fine, you can use a frying pan to sauté the ingredients and then add them in the baking dish to cook in the oven as per the recipe.

The key to this meal is the ratio of liquid to pasta to ensure it cooks enough but to also to have a lot of it left. Once you take it out of the oven it is very creamy. After about an hour later as the pasta cools it soaks up most of the sauce. When you reheat the next day the pasta it is so moist and delicious.

I’m sure you this will become a family favourite of yours too! Enjoy xoxo

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Bacon and mushroom pasta traybake

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

40 mins

Total Time

45 mins

 

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Servings: 5

Author: Eleni Georges

Ingredients

• 3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 300 g mushrooms, sliced
• 130 g short cut bacon, diced (6-8 pieces)
• 4 spring onions, ends removed and chopped
• 600 ml thickened cream
• 900 mL hot water^{1 see notes}
• 500 g bow pasta,
• black pepper, to taste
• 10 parsley springs, ends removed and chopped
• 150 g Greek feta^{2 see notes}

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Use a baking tray that is flameproof and ovenproof. I used a 28cm square baking dish with a depth of 7cm. If you do not have such baking dish, use a frying pan to sauté the ingredients required and then place everything in a separate baking dish.

2. Heat the olive oil and sautee the mushrooms (at a high/medium heat) until most of the liquid they release has been evaporated and they brown off a bit. Then add the bacon and spring onions for a couple of minutes until the onions soften. 

3. Turn off the heat. Pour the cream and hot water. Then stir in the pasta and season with some black pepper.

4. Cover the baking tray with foil and place it in the oven for 20min. After that time take it out of the oven and increase the temperature to 210°C. 

5. Remove the foil, add the parsley and stir it through the pasta. Crumble the feta on top and place it in the oven (on the top oven rack) for a further 5-10min or until the feta starts to soften and brown slightly. Serve warm straight away or you may let it rest covered for 10min so the cream is absorbed further.

Recipe Notes

1. Heat the water using a kettle, rather than adding tap water, as that will speed up the cooking process in the oven,
2. I don't add any salt during the cooking process because of all the feta i'm using. You may season as you like.