BAKED TOMATO AND MOZZARELLA PASTA

After happily buying a few Jamie Oliver books from his Naked Chef days I gradually started to be less interested in him in print, I still enjoyed his TV programmes and watched each and every series but his books were no longer a must. I debated buying each and every one but there always seemed to be something more interesting around. However, my resolve broke when I saw 'Jamie's Italy' and I decided it was time to give him another try. I watched the programmes and read with interest about the stir that he had caused by killing a lamb and then I bought the book and mentally noted a few interesting recipes. Until now though this initial interest had only translated into repeatedly making the very good pizza recipe (I have discovered that I love making home made pizza and am actually jealous of the people who have decided to build pizza ovens in their back gardens as this would definitely be my first choice piece of garden cookery kit).

Anyway, yesterday I decided it was time to finally try a different recipe, I wanted to make a simple pasta dish so turned to baked pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella. The sauce is just onions, garlic, dried chilli, tomatoes, and basil all cooked together to be later layered with pasta, parmesan and mozzarella. This came out of the oven bubbling and smelling good but I immediately realised that next time I may reduce the cheese quantities as there was a little (actually a lot) too much mozzarella, which made serving it nearly impossible as the strings of cheese stuck to the baking dish, the plates, and, at one point, my hair. Anyway, cheese overdose aside it is delicious and will hopefully be just as delicious when I go home shortly to reheat a portion for my lunch with a mental note to check my hair carefully before coming back to work.