Cheese and tomato pasta bake

This is a very simple, very convenient vegetarian dish that is popular even with small, picky people. And very comforting and filling when you're tired and hungry and cold. The topping is a cross between a quiche and a cheese sauce, and is far more satisfying than the usual baked pasta topping of grated cheese only.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb pasta (rotelle, farfalle, penne, macaroni elbows, etc)
1/2 a recipe tomato pasta sauce (if you don't want to make your own, buy it, but get a good one)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Boil the pasta in a large pot of boiling water to which you've added at least a tablespoon of salt. (This is to flavor the pasta. Don't worry that it will be too salty. It won't.)

While the pasta is cooking, whisk the eggs, milk, grated cheddar, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

Drain the pasta and mix it with the tomato sauce. Decant the whole thing into a large baking dish. (I used an 8x8 square one with tallish sides.) Spread the egg/cheese mixture over the top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or longer, until the egg mixture is cooked and golden. Leave the dish to rest for 5 minutes before cutting into it.

Serves 4-6.

Crustless quiche

This is one of these superbly useful recipes that you can add more or less anything to. I love eggs and I love quiche, and I think all sorts of things would work here. Suggestions include cooked beans or grains; lightly steamed vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, corn, hominy, or peas; sauteed or caramelized onions; leftover cooked meats, diced up small; and so on. The only things I don't much like in quiche are vegetables that release a lot of liquids, such as mushrooms and zucchini. This is a personal taste thing, however--plenty of people do. I'd be sure to cook them thoroughly first in such a way that they release most of their liquid before  you put them in the quiche. Any kind of cheese is fine here; I prefer one with a lot of flavor, such as Parmesan, sharp cheddar, feta, etc.

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1/4 cup milk, any kind

salt and pepper

1/2 cup cheese, any kind

Cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit, with the rack in the middle of the oven. Spray an 8x8 square baking dish with cooking spray.

Whisk the eggs together with the milk, salt, and pepper. Stir in the fillings of your choice. Pour the mixture carefully into the dish, and sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, checking several times, until the eggs are set and the top is very lightly browned.

Serves 2 greedy adults and 1 greedy toddler.

Spaghetti alla carbonara

I adore carbonara, and I'm quite picky about it. I despise versions with cream in them, which are cloyingly rich. Yuck! This version is a really good dish to make when you're feeling poor and hungry, because it's incredibly filling and tastes delicious too. The recipe is a variant on one my parents used to make when I was little. As far as I know, they never monkeyed about with wine or Parmesan, but I bet they'd like it if they did.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 to 1 cup grated cheese of your choice (I like a mixture of cheddar and Parmesan)
4 slices bacon
3 tablespoons white wine (optional)
1/2 lb whole wheat spaghetti (or white spaghetti)
1 tablespoon minced parsley
salt
pepper

Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook it in its own fat in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat until it's crisp. Deglaze the pan with white wine and let it simmer until reduced. (Skip this step if you don't have wine, it'll still taste good.)

Boil water in a large pot, and when it's boiling, stir in 1 tablespoon of salt. Pasta water should be salty like the sea--it's the best way to make the pasta taste good without over-salting the sauce. Add the spaghetti, and cook according to package directions. (I usually take it out 1 minute before it says you should, because I like pasta with quite a bite to it.)

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, parsley and cheese together with a fork, and set aside.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking water. Tip the egg and bacon mixtures into the pot and toss with the spaghetti--the egg will cook and the cheese will melt from the heat of the pasta. Season with a few generous grinds of pepper.

Self-Crusting Quiche

I adore eggs, and I adore quiche. The only problem is the crust. I used to think I couldn't make pastry, but it turned out I was just cutting the butter too small; once I figured out how to leave bigger bits in there, it went much better, but you're left with the problem of how unhealthy it is. White flour, masses of fat. I could solve this by making it with whole wheat flour, but that never tastes very good to me, and you still have masses of fat. Then I figured out how to make a self-crusting quiche, which drastically reduces the amount of both fat and white flour. Fabulous!

Ingredients
1 onion, cut in half and then sliced into rings
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon peanut oil (or any other kind of oil)
1 medium sweet potato
1 cup milk (any kind, but I haven't tried it with non-dairy milks so I can't promise it would work)
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup small broccoli florets and chopped stems
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (I used reduced fat)
Salt and pepper

First, caramelize your onion. Melt the butter in a cast-iron frying pan* over medium heat, then add peanut oil. Cook the onions, stirring, until they are completely soft and delicately colored (not browned). It takes an unbelievably long time to do this. Some recipes lie and say it takes 15 minutes. It actually takes more like 45, but you can do other things while they caramelize.

Such as: peel the sweet potato, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and boil it for about 10 minutes, or until it's soft but not a mushy mess.

Cut up the broccoli and steam it in a small pot with about an inch of water and the lid on over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.

Beat the eggs, milk, flour and baking powder together with a whisk. Season as much or as little as you like. Stir in the grated cheese.

Now preheat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (or 220 Celsius). Oil an 8x8 baking dish, or spray with cooking spray. (You will save yourself a great deal of washing-up if you use a non-stick one, but it will work in a dish of any material.)

When the onions are caramelized, add the garlic, and cook, stirring, for about a minute or until the garlic is a little more fragrant than in its completely raw state.

Add the onions, sweet potatoes, and broccoli to the egg mixture and stir gently. Pour the mixture into the baking dish.

Bake for around 30 minutes, or until the center is set and the outsides have formed a soft crush around the edges of the dish.

Serves 4, or 2 plus leftovers for lunch the next day.


*Non-stick is also fine, but there's something about cast-iron that produces very pleasing results. No idea why.

Baked Mexican omelette

This is a great recipe for feeding a lot of hungry people. I have no idea if a Mexican person would burst into scornful laughter at this, but this family of wimpy gringos likes it. I typically make something like this if I'm hosting a brunch, because it feeds six hungry people and eight slightly less ravenous people. The ingredients are moderately cheap, the recipe is very easy, and for some reason it tends to impress guests. You can cut it in squares and eat it the way it is, or scoop it into warmed corn tortillas.

Ingredients
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cottage cheese (I used low fat, any kind would do)
1/2 cup sour cream (ditto)
1 cup grated cheese (any kind; I used cheddar)
1 cup salsa (any kind; I used a mild one because of Baby B's sensitive taste buds)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 celsius)

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray, or coat with oil.

Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then gently stir in the sour cream, cottage cheese and salt.

Spread the salsa evenly over the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the salsa.

Pour the egg mixture over the cheese.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the eggs are set. For some reason, it sometimes takes up to 10 minutes longer. Don't panic. Everything is fine.

(Optional extra: Mr. B, who adores meat, always wistfully says that this would be better with some crumbled cooked sausage meat in it. I don't especially like meat at breakfast time, but I'd eat it that way for dinner.)

*I can't particularly tell the difference between full-fat and low-fat dairy products. I don't use the low-fat ones in baking, but for most cooking they seem to work. I don't, however, recommend fat-free hard cheeses, which taste like a nasty hybrid of cardboard and rubber.