Eating In: Lazy Bolognese Pasta Bake

Your head hurts. Your throat hurts. You're coughing and can barely speak. You really can't be bothered, but the thought of toast for another meal REALLY just doesn't do it for you. In desperation you look in the freezer... lo: mince, cheese, vegies... you check the pantry... dried herbs, pasta and a tin of tomatoes... dinner is forthcoming! Times like this I bless my mother's advice to always keep a tin of tomatoes in the cupboard and some meat in the freezer.

So I threw an onion, about a clove-worth of minced garlic and a little oil in a pan. I had found a couple of rashers of bacon in the freezer too... finely diced those and threw them in with the garlic and onion. Sauted until the onion and bacon were cooked, then added about half a kilo of mince (since that's the amount I had). Preheated the oven to 180C. Once the mince was all nicely browned up I added a 425g tin of diced tomatoes, a few pinches of dried herbs, about half a tablespoon full of cornflour (to help the sauce thicken up a bit), and another 1/3 to 1/2 can of water. I also added a handful of frozen beans, and another of frozen peas, carrot and corn. Stirred all that around until it was all combined, and then threw in about 250g of dried penne and stirred it all until the pasta was well mixed in.

I turned it all into a casserole dish and patted it down. Sprinkled grated cheese over the top, and threw the lot in the oven for an hour. Cue meat-y, tomato-y, garlic-y, cheese-y smells throughout the house. It might not be the prettiest meal, but dang it was tasty. And I can't wait to heat up some leftovers to have on toasted muffins tomorrow morning! Next time I think I'll put in a little less pasta, and also remember to add some chilli... but aside from that, it was good!