This is called Pizza Pasta Bake because it’s a pasta bake that smells and tastes like pizza, or so the kids tell me. That’s probably because the fillings we use happen to be the kids’ favourite pizza toppings, but once a dish is named in our house there’s no changing it.
You can use your own favourite pizza toppings in place of ours.
You have two options for the Express Version just put it under the grill, for the regular the oven will cook the pasta more and give it that lovely baked pasta texture.
Pizza Pasta Bake
300g pasta (fusili and penne work well for pasta bakes)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
125g lardons
75 g sliced chorizo, chopped into thin strips
Small tin sweetcorn
Half a green pepper, diced
1 clove garlic (Crushed)
1 chicken stock cube
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon tomato purée
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup grated cheese (we prefer cheddar on dishes like this, you might like mozzarella)
Preheat oven to 180C if you’re baking it. Cook pasta according to instructions on packet. While it’s cooking blend the tomatoes, tomato puree, basil, garlic, stock cube and sugar together using a stick blender until it’s very smooth. Fry lardons until crispy, adding the chorizo just before the lardons are cooked to crisp it up..
Drain the cooked pasta and turn it into a baking dish. Pour in the tomato sauce and stir. Add the lardons, peppers, corn and chorizo and stir them through to distribute evenly through the bake Sprinkle with cheese and either bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or under the serve with a side salad.
