PASTA BAKE
A pasta bake is a classic midweek family meal, as it is cheap and easy to put together, and usually goes down well with everybody! We’ve brought together some expert tips and simple steps to take your pasta bakes from good to great.
Why is a pasta bake so great?
Pasta bakes are simple, cheap and delicious, and they lend themselves well to making a big batch for future meals.
Veg makes a great addition to pasta bakes, particularly for fussier eaters as the sauce provides lots of flavour and the veg is more likely to be accepted.
Pasta bakes also keep well, so you can make it the day before and cover and chill (or freeze) until you are ready to stick it in the oven to heat through and serve, making it a great meal for busy nights.
We’ve got you covered for lasagne [add link] and mac ‘n’ cheese [add link], but for a more generic pasta bake, this is the place to start.
Use the basic recipe, small tweaks and tips below to take your pasta bakes from good to better!
How are your pasta bake skills?
Getting
started
I’m just starting out.
Next
Level
I’m ready to take it to the next level.
Engaging
Kids
How can I get my kids involved and interested?
Getting Started
Pasta bakes are simple, cheap and delicious, and they lend themselves well to making a big batch for future meals.
Veg makes a great addition to pasta bakes, particularly for fussier eaters as the sauce provides lots of flavour and the veg is more likely to be accepted.
Here is a simple recipe for a pasta bake which you can use as a base and build on over time…
Pasta Bake
Claire Wright
Ingredients:
Meat/veggie alternative, if using*
Pasta
Jar of sauce (usually tomato)
Grated cheese
Method:
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Preheat oven to 190C/gas 5.
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Cook the meat/veggie alternative according to pack instructions (usually just a case of frying in a little oil until browned and cooked all the way through).
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Cook the pasta according to package instructions, but cooking for 1-2 mins less (usually just boiling for 10 mins or so) then drain.
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Add pasta to a casserole dish along with the meat (if using) and sauce, stir well and top with some grated cheese. Bake in the oven for 20-30 mins, until cheese is golden and sauce is bubbling.
*You don’t need to add meat/fish or a veggie alternative to a pasta bake, but if you want to, you can use most here – perhaps try starting with chicken breast pieces, a few sausages chopped into bite-size pieces, a tin of tuna or sardines, or some beef or veggie mince
There is no need to go any further with this recipe until you are confident with it and feel up for the next step, but if you want to add some veg straightaway, see our tips below for ideas of where to start.
Feeling ready? Let’s see how you can get your next small victory without battles…
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
The eventual aim, if possible, is to get kids in the kitchen. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to mean they are with you from start-to-end creating mess and rising stress levels! It can be as simple as giving them one small job (stirring, measuring, pouring, grating, chopping…) ideally involving veg. They can come in to do their little bit, and have fun with you for a few minutes. Getting them involved, making it playful and praising them plenty for their involvement, perhaps even serving it as dinner they “made”, makes it much more likely they will eat the food offered, not to mention teaching them important life skills. Find ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
NEXT LEVEL
I Want To Improve My Pasta Bake
If you are feeling confident with your favourite pasta bake recipe, but you’re wondering if there are some small tweaks you could make for the better, this is for you.
We’ve outlined some simple stages for continually improving on a basic pasta bake to get you from good to great. Find where you feel your current recipe sits and see if the next step is something you could aim for. You don’t have to go any further, but if you choose to, make sure you are feeling confident with this new stage before you try the next one.
And remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed if your family isn’t ready for big changes all in one go. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed.
Better Sauce
Read the labels on jars of sauce and make changes as slowly as needed for your family, gently moving them towards lower sugar, salt and fat options and ingredients you recognise.
If and when you feel ready, you could start making your own sauce, but if you don’t have the time, you could save money and time by just using chopped tomatoes or passata and adding a little seasoning, a pinch of sugar and/or some dried mixed herbs to add more flavour if you feel it needs it.
If you do have a little time to make and store a big batch of homemade sauce for a few meals, why not try our rainbow veg sauce? Rainbow veg sauce is perfect for when you’re busy, as it’s a super quick way to get an excellent mix of veg into your kids and helps to produce tasty meals in a flash!
Making meals go further
With food budgets being stretched, meat can be expensive. Using veg and pulses can help a meal go further without noticeably altering the taste and texture. This not only saves you money, it also helps you get a little closer to 5-a-day! Go at your pace and work through the stages to build up to 50% meat and 50% pulses/veg over time if you can.
For a pasta bake, try a tin of butter or haricot beans, drained, rinsed and added for the last couple of mins of cooking, or add a tin of cooked lentils if you prefer. If you think it will be turned down, try starting with just half a tin and perhaps even blending it into the sauce and just reduce the meat while adding more lentils and/or beans slowly each time you make the meal.
Add veg
Adding veg means adding bulk, vitamins and fibre, so you can fill up hungry bellies while making a favourite meal cheaper, more filling and healthier! For the best chance of success, start small (with a veg you know the family like if possible), add a little more each time, don’t try to hide it, and build up over time.
Aim for 2 handfuls of veg per person in the long-run, but it’s better to go slowly and get there eventually than to rush to the finish line and find no one is ready to get there with you.
- Start with frozen veg – there is less waste, it’s cheaper and easier to add a little more each time. Try peas, sweetcorn, mixed veg, chargrilled veg, squash or sweet potato, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, broccoli, green beans, or baby leaf or chopped spinach.
- If using fresh veg, make sure it is added at the start and allow time for it to soften in a little oil before adding the protein, and sauce. Try finely diced fresh carrots, onions, fennel, leeks and/or celery, sliced peppers or mushrooms, cubed squash or sweet potato, florets of broccoli, etc. Or stir through some leafy greens just before baking.
- While most veg will work here, ones that may not do quite so well are: parsnips, swede/turnips, beetroot, sugar snap peas, salad leaves. Although you can always serve some raw or roasted veg on the side of course!
Don’t forget that the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! There’s no rush, and no pressure in not getting to 2 portions per serve.
Batch cooking
Once you are happy with your recipe, why not batch cook and freeze extra to save you future time, effort and money? Pasta bake freezes really well, just make double and freeze in a freezer-safe (and oven-safe, if possible) dish or ladle into freezer bags when cold and freeze flat for up to 3 months and heat through to piping hot, or keep in the fridge for a few days. Just heat through to piping hot to serve.
Not sure if batch cooking is for you? People often think batch cooking means you have to have a big freezer and a slow cooker. But while those things can be helpful, they’re definitely not essential. Find out more about how to start small with batch cooking in our guide.
engaging kids
Play is essential!
Think of children helping in the kitchen as a role play game with plenty of fun for maximum effect. One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods!
Cooking with kids
One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods! They don’t have to be involved in the whole process especially when they are very young (let’s keep the mess to a minimum!), just give them 1-2 smaller jobs they can own with some supervision.
If you are making pasta bake, why not get younger kids mixing the sauce and cooked pasta together, helping you grate the cheese and scattering over the pasta, and chucking a couple of handfuls of your chosen veg into the pan.
Older kids might be ready to learn how to chop some fresh veg to add at the start of the meal, boil the kettle and cook the pasta, and help you stir all the hot ingredients together!
See if they can tick off our Kitchen Ninja skills over time as you all get used to the recipe.
Arts & crafts
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging veg-based arts & crafts can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory.
Use these arts & crafts as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. While you make your pasta bake, why not set them up with our cut out and colour tomato page?
Games & puzzles
Like arts & crafts, games & puzzles are a very safe way to get veggies to become more familiar and takes any pressure off eating or engaging their senses around veg for now.
A great place to start with pasta bake might be our Totally Blitzed tomato game!
Sensory
Sensory engagement with veg is possibly the best way to get children to slowly become more familiar with a veg. Take away the pressure to taste for now (and remember that ‘tasting’ could be expanded to include sniffing, licking and smelling) and instead encourage exploring a veg with a sense of smell, hearing, touch or sight.
Why not start with a couple of slices of carrot and get them to describe what how they sound – does it remind them of anything? Maybe it sounds like giant footsteps or an axe chopping wood. If they take a bite with headphones on does it become louder? If they won’t put it in their mouths, can they snap it with their hands close to their ear to hear it? See if they want to chuck some into the pasta bake after having engaged with them.
Serving
If your kids aren’t ready to be in the kitchen helping with part of the prep or cooking process, why not give them a job around the serving that could help them feel involved in the meal?
A crafty kid may like to design a beautiful menu, one who likes to help can lay the table. One may like to help you plate up the food, another may love to give the meal a theme! If you can (and we know it’s not always possible), try to eat with the kids, as they are much more likely to eat healthier food if they see it being eaten (and enjoyed!) by their families.
Why not let your child help you meal plan? Let them pick out the veg they want to buy to add to the pasta bake, and the flavour of the sauce so they feel it is their meal. See if they want to help you with the shopping, too. Make sure to praise them for their choices when it comes to making and serving the meal, it may encourage them to eat it as they take ownership!
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