Pasta Cake

Pasta Cake - The idea originated from a shot shown during a promo of Masterchef Australia. The new season was coming and the promos were here and the colourful beautiful food was making my fingers itch. At any point, I am, at best, a decent cook. So the itchiness is something I generally ignore. But there was one shot there, in between those divine food and which, to my naive eyes and mind looked vaguely familiar. My culinary naïveté will be evident when I confess that it took me days before my rookie mind gave a name to it - Pasta Cake. It wasn't pasta cake and I wasn't able to find out what it actually was as we skipped this season of Masterchef Australia. But the thought stuck. And as usual, I trawled the depths of culinary blogs via an old friend, Google Search. I found quite a few. I wanted a vegetarian one and hence, I took elements from a few recipes to make a delicious Saturday lunch or comfort food on Friday night.

Here it is: 

2 cups of heavy cream

3 large eggs

Salt

Black pepper powder 

100 gms of cheese 

11/2 cups of spinach

3/4 cup of carrot (grated or 

finely chopped, as you wish)

1 large potato, finely chopped

A handful of French beans

2 large tomatoes

1 green chilli, deseeded and chopped finely

400 gms of spaghetti, freshly cooked

1/2 cup butter

Small handful of coriander leaves, to garnish

First step: Cook that spaghetti. Do not substitute spaghetti with any other kind of pasta.once cooked, let it drain. 

Take a skillet and heat oil. Lightly stir fry your tomatoes. Keep them aside. If it appeals, you could also lightly stir fry the other vegetables. 

Now it's whisking time. Take a large bowl and beat the cream and eggs with pepper powder and salt. Add the grated cheese, the tomatoes, chilli, vegetables and cooked spaghetti. While you are integrating all your elements, pre-heat your oven to 180 degree Celsius.

(Note: You can add more vegetables like cauliflower, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, peas. Also, make sure the mixture should not become watery as that makes for a mushed up pasta cake. Trust me, that does not taste good at all.)

Melt the butter and pour it into the pan; swirl the pan around so that it is nicely coated. Now pour your spaghetti mixture into the bowl, slowly, and make sure that the mixture is evenly distributed in the pan. Let it bake for 30 minutes. Your spaghetti cake will be ready when it begins to crisp at the top. Take it out of the oven and sprinkle some coriander leaves over it. Sprinkle some more grated cheese over it and bake it in the oven for another 10 minutes. Take it out, now, and let it rest and cool. Your magnificent Saturday lunch is ready. Have it with a lemon pickle or a good side of green salad. 

What a comfort food!