It's been a strange week or so. Changing the clocks last weekend has resulted in me losing all sense of time. One minute it's mid afternoon, the next it is 7pm. Added to that long weekend (and a day's annual leave next week) have meant that I don't even know what day it is, let alone the time. I'm also having the familiar dilemma with long weekends/annual leave etc. which involves a need to step back and take a rest, while my brain tries to convince me that I need to make the most of the extra free time and that means doing All The Things and being Very Productive.
Anyway tonight's dinner was a store cupboard pasta bake and was all about timings. It's another Green Roasting Tin recipe, but one of the quicker ones. This was the second time I've tried this recipe. The first time wasn't entirely successful but I put that down to it being a poorly planned back up option when I realised the meal I was intending to reheat had been leftover rather too long. It seemed worth another properly planned attempt.
As the ingredients are meant to store cupboard and the cooking time is rather quick there is a temptation to think it will be easy, but the preparation feels rather demanding. On reflection the preparation time probably isn't any longer than for other GRT dishes, it just seems more in proportion to the cooking time. I've got too used to being able to do 10 minutes prep, chuck it in the oven and forget about it for 30mins-1 hour. Tonight's dish required Attention.
Begin by quartering tomatoes and grilling until soft. At the same time boil macaroni until cooked. In theory you should then mix the tomatoes and pasta with all the other ingredients in the roasting tin. As my tin is rather small I tend to mix everything in a bowl then return to the roasting tin for the last stage.
The other ingredients are spring onions, roasted peppers, olives, cannellini beans, blue cheese, smoked paprika, oil, lemon juice and herbs (recipe says parsley and dill, I used parsley and rocket microgreens). Part of the pressure may have come from trying to prepare these ingredients while keeping an eye on the pasta and trying to prevent the tomatoes from burning.
Once all the ingredients are mixed return to the roasting tin. I had made enough for two and my dish wasn't large enough so I divided the mixture between the roasting tin and tupperware. Top with breadcrumbs and more blue cheese and grill for 10-15 minutes.
At this stage I may have also engaged in some more stress inducing multi tasking by trying to wash up while grilling the mixture, resulting in slightly burnt topping and needing to attend to the smoke alarm.
The end result was filling but I'm not sure whether I'd rush to repeat the recipe in this form. I suspect that I may reheat the other portion in the microwave without the breadcrumbs/grilling for a calmer dinner later in the week.
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