Pasta Bake with Free Range Danish Bacon – for a crowd!

This yummy pasta bake is ideal for a crowd of hungry kids or adults and is fantastic for lunch box leftovers!

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 500g pack large pasta e.g. Rigatoni (I used Zitone #19)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 large white onion medium dice
• 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 250g Prasuma Streaky Bacon roughly chopped
• 1 carrot peeled and finely diced
• 1 eggplant peeled and roughly chopped into dice
• 1 red pepper diced
• 1 tbsp capers (optional)
• 15 each Kalamata olives (optional)
• 1 tsp each oregano, rosemary and thyme
• 2 x 400g cans of chopped Italian tomatoes in thick sauce
• 1 cup shaved parmesan
• A handful of chopped Italian parsley
• Olive oil
• Cracked pepper and sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 180C

In a large deep fry pan or heavy based pot over medium heat add ½ the olive oil. Add the onion and cook for 5 mins, now add the bacon and cook for a further 5-7 mins. Add the garlic, carrot, eggplant, red peppers and remaining olive oil and sauté for 8-10 mins until the eggplant becomes tender.

To this add the oregano, rosemary and thyme and cook for 3 mins. Add the chopped tomatoes and allow the sauce to simmer gently for 10 mins or so [do not allow it to reduce too much] until the vegetables become just tender. Season well and set aside somewhere warm.

Cook your pasta al dente to the packets instructions [usually 8 mins]. Drain the pasta and then drizzle liberally with olive oil to stop it from sticking.

Grease a large 25-30cm baking dish with butter and spread ¼ of the sauce evenly over the bottom of the dish. Add a layer of pasta and then a light sprinkling of shaved parmesan, repeating this until the final layer. The final layer should end pasta then parmesan then sauce and then a final sprinkling of parmesan.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins.

To serve sprinkle the top of the pasta bake with parsley. Serve alongside a fresh green salad and crusty garlic bread.