disaster pasta

Pasta and I go way back. Way back into the world of an Aussie meat and three veg family. Even back then I was always asking for pasta. I was like the food black sheep of the family. I was intrigued by Italian cooking and longed to learn how to make it. Back then  Mum's meaty spaghetti bolognese or pasta with a cream of chicken soup sauce were the order of the day. And certainly dishes that I looked forward to. To this day Mum's spaghetti is pure comfort food.

As a teenager I began to experiment with torn out magazine recipes and soon built a small repertoire of pasta dishes. Not so long after I met Daniel ( I was 19 and he was just 17) I invited him over for a home cooked meal. Daniel is second generation Italian, which strangely didn't sink in until I was halfway through the bolognese sauce. Was I crazy cooking pasta for an Italian? I must have been, but there was no backing down at that stage. So nervously the pasta was served and I was relieved that he  did seem to like it.  To this day he says it was just like his Mum's bolognese sauce. They do the say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

So with time, I was introduced to many more traditional pasta dishes from my mother-in-law. But I don't use a recipe very often these days, preferring to go with what I have and flavouring with fresh herbs, sometime fried vegetables. Sometimes a bit of cream. Sometimes a handful of feta cheese.

Last week I had a disaster of a pasta dish. Though not entirely my fault, but almost. Daniel had accidentally added the fried mushrooms and garlic to the boiling pasta which resulted in most of the flavour being poured down the drain with the boiled water. He was only trying to help!

So as you can guess we had quite a lot of this pasta leftover. Not to be wasteful, the next night pasta bake was on the menu.

I simply added about 8 or so eggs with a cup of cream and a little sea salt

 Mixed into the pasta with a few handfuls of vegetables. I added grated carrot, purple carrot and corn

Topped with grated cheese

Baked at 200 degrees until golden on top.

Best eaten al fresco. Bad and sugary alcoholic beverage optional.

Are you a pasta person?