Tonight’s dinner was most definitely an experiment.  We needed to use up leftovers – grassy linguine and half a can of tomatoes.  So a sort of pasta bake was constructed.  Green noodles at the bottom, red tomato based sauce in the middle and a creamy sauce on top.

What I used…

Leftover wild garlic pesto linguine

Tomato Sauce
1 x onion
1 x yellow pepper
6 x smallish mushrooms
Half a thinly sliced courgette
1 x tin tomatoes
3 x frozen basil leaves
1 x small sprig of thyme
Stock cube and a little hot water
Knife tip of arabiata pasta flakes
Salt
Pepper
2 x rings jalapeño pepper finely chopped
Squeeze lemon juice
Squirt tomato puree

Cheese Sauce
Tablespoon butter – melted
Tablespoon flour – mixed into butter
A little milk to make the butter flour paste smooth – low heat
2 generous dollops Quark (not a fan)
2 generous dollops of thick Greek yoghurt (to mask Quark)
Salt
Pepper
1/2 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
Large chunk of cheese grated – keep stirring til mostly melted
1 x egg – stir in off the heat
Liberal squirt of squirty cream (needs must) – stir it all in really well

Layer a baking dish with green pasta first and press into the bottom, then the tomato layer, leaving room for a thin covering of the cheese sauce over the top.  Sprinkle with a little more grated cheese.

In our oven, it took 12 mins at 200 degrees C for the top to rise and brown and I was really pleased how it turned out.  Sliced into squares, it all held its shape and the unlikely topping worked!