Spinach, ricotta and mushroom pasta bake

Tonight's dinner is in the oven. In
Keeping with my "buy nothing" experiment, I raided the fridge for ingredients.

This is a pretty basic recipe inspired by a pasta bake served during the field trip last week. Good hearty veggie food.


Spinach, ricotta and mushroom pasta bake (serves 4-6)

About 250g fresh cows milk mozarella (S S bei Naufragati)
1 onion, chopped (Phantassie organics)


1 small punnet mushrooms, sliced


1 bag spinach (Phantassie organics)


1 whole ricotta (S S bei Naufragati)


1 whole smoky garlic cheddar cheese, about 280g, grated (Isle of Arran Cheese)


280g dry pasta (Waitrose - leftover in cupboard from months ago)


Cook pasta in plenty of boiling water. Preheat oven to 180'C.

Sautee onions in a little oil until slightly softened. Add mushrooms and cook for a further couple of minutes. Let cool.

Drain ricotta. Add half the grated cheddar - you could use any strong cheddar, but I like the smoky garlic flavour of the Arran cheddar. It also saves having to chop garlic! Add the cooled onions and mushrooms and mix thoroughly.

Toss cooked pasta and the spinach in the cheese mixture, reserving some to spread on top.

Spread the mixture in a large casserole dish, spreading the remaining cheese mixture over top. Finish with the rest of the grated cheddar.


Bake in oven until the the cheese is melted and golden.

Squat Lobster fusilli with baby plum tomatoes

A few weeks ago I spied a wee treat at the Farmers Market - something I'd heard about from friends who came from the west coast but had never seen or tasted myself. Two wee tubs sitting amidst the peppered mackerel and smoked salmon they sell in abundance. I had to have them. They were expensive and I had no idea how to cook them, but I bought them anyways. Two 100g pots of shelled squat lobster tails.

I just threw together this little recipe tonight with what I had the fridge. The squat lobster tails had to be taken out of the freezer yesterday as the bloody thing is in serious need of defrosting, and the wee pots of loveliness were in danger of going to waste.

Squat lobster fusilli with baby plum tomatoes
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic
200g squat lobster tails, shell removed
10 baby plum tomatoes
Spelt fusilli (regular wheat pasta can be used as well, I'm just trying to cut down on wheat)

Cook fusilli in boiling water.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot. Add the onions and sauté gently until softened. Add squat lobster tails and sauté until just cooked - do not overcook! Finally add tomatoes and garlic, give it a stir just to heat through, and remove from heat.

Toss with cooked pasta.

Poshest packed lunch ever!




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