OVEN PASTA RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF/gas 6 and put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Heat a couple of lugs of extra virgin olive oil in an appropriately sized pan. Add your onion, garlic and chilli and slowly fry for about 10 minutes on a medium to low heat until softened but without any colour. If you’re using fresh tomatoes, remove the core with the tip of a small knife, plunge them into the boiling water for about 40 seconds until their skin starts to come away, then remove with a slotted spoon or sieve and remove the pan from the heat. Put the tomatoes into a bowl and run cold water over them, then slide the skins off, squeeze out the seeds, and roughly chop. Add your fresh or canned tomatoes to the onion and garlic, with a small glass of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. Now put them through a food processor or blender to make a loose sauce. Tear your basil leaves into the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt, pepper and a little swig of red wine vinegar. When the sauce tastes perfect, bring the water back to the boil. Add the orecchiette to the water and cook according to the packet instructions, then drain and toss with half of the tomato sauce and a handful of Parmesan. Get yourself an appropriately sized baking pan or earthenware dish and rub it with a little olive oil. Layer a little pasta in the pan, followed by some tomato sauce, a handful of grated Parmesan and 1 sliced-up mozzarella ball, then repeat these layers until you’ve used all the ingredients, ending with a good layer of cheese on top. Pop it into the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden, crisp and bubbling. Italians seem happy to eat this dish at room temperature or quite cold, but I prefer to eat mine hot.

Steps:

• Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add a little splash of olive oil and the pasta. Cook for 4 minutes or until al dente. Drain and return to the pan. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
• Season the whole chicken fillets with salt and pepper and then lightly shallow fry them in a little olive oil on a medium heat. Turn them regularly until they're just starting to colour, about 7 minutes. They should be white and still juicy throughout when you take them off the heat and slice them diagonally into thin strips.
• For the sauce, add the butter to the pan along with the finely diced shallot. Add in the mushrooms. Fry for a few minutes until the onions are translucent but not browning. Add the garlic, crushed. Stir for a further minute or so until you can smell the garlic. Reduce the heat and pour in the cream. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper and allow to reduce very slightly so that the cream thickens a bit and is slightly sticking to the spoon.
• Stir in the the chicken and pasta. When mixed add about a quarter of the parmesan cheese by grating this in directly. Cook for another minute or two. The texture should be sticky and the chicken and pasta should both be starting be covered in the sauce.
• Dish into oven-proof dish(es) and cover with foil. Pop into the oven and leave for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and carefully remove the foil. Grate over about half of the remaining parmesan liberally and return to the oven for a another 10 minutes before removing and serving with a final further helping of parmesan on the top and pepper to taste.