Description
And easy to make Macaroni Pasta Bake with a flavorful tomatoe sauce and bell peppers, cream and cheese.
Ingredients
Chicken & Bacon
- 2 Chicken breasts (cubed)
- 1 teaspoon Calabrese spice
- 1 teaspoon Salt and pepper or a generous pinch
- 250 grams Bacon (cooked and chopped)
Pasta
- 300 grams Macaroni pasta
Sauce
- 3 Tbsps Olive oil
- 1 Onion (diced)
- 3 Garlic (minced)
- 1/2 cup chicken stock or water
- 2 small Bell peppers (chopped)
- 400 grams Canned tomatoes (1 small can)
- 1 cup Frozen peas
Cream
- 1 cup Coconut cream
- 1/4 cup Passata tomato
- 1/4 cup thick whipping cream
Bake and Garnish
- 2 cups grated cheese (mozzarella or cheddar)
- fresh parsley (chopped)
Instructions
- Sear the chicken all round till light golden brown in a little olive oil. Make sure that the chicken breasts are at room temperature and you've used kitchen tissue paper to dab off any moisture. The more dry the chicken is, the quicker and better it will take to the spices and the more even the sear will be. Once seared, set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
- Cook the onions in the remaining oil from the chicken but add butter to prevent the oil from burning entirely. The onions should cook on medium to high heat with a pinch of salt till soft. The onions will turn a light brown color, this is from the chicken pan juices, which is great flavor. Add the stock to deglaze the pan.
- Add the bell peppers and give them a minute or so to cook. The ingredients are added one after the other and they don't need to cook since they will cook in the oven.
- Add the tomatoes followed by 1/2 cup of water. Use a masher to press gently on the tomatoes breaking them up.
- Add the coconut cream and passata tomato and stir it into the tomatoes.Lower the heat and add the cream, mix it into the sauce.
- Return the cooked pasta, bacon and chicken to the sauce with a little or part of the cheese, combine it all and transfer to a baking dish.
- Top the whole dish off with mozzarella cheese and bake till light golden brown. Garnish with fresh parsley and Allow 5 minutes to cool before serving.
Notes
You can substitute the chicken with steak cubes or braised beef mince.
Reserve a cup of pasta water incase you need more saucy liquid. If iou forget, simply add regular water.
For the tomato sauce, you can also use store bought or homemade.
Feel free to stop the bell peppers with another veg like Zucchini or leave them out entirely if you don't like veggies. They do add a beautiful light sweetness and color to the sauce however.
If you can't find thick whipping cream, use 1/2 cup regular cream.
If you decide to use coconut milk instead of cream then use this thick whipping cream to help getting a thick rich cream. Coconut milk alone won't give you the richness.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian, South African