I'm going to show you how
to make the most delicious, straightforward pasta bake
with sweet leeks, tomatoes, basil, parmesan,
and the most amazing, garlicky crumb.
We're going to do a big batch of it.
You could either feed loads of people
or you could portion it off, put it in the fridge
or the freezer, for meals for another day.
But also a hack of turning this
the everyday pre-bought garlic bread into a thing of joy.
The most amazing garlic bread crumb.
So let's start off with that.
First up, get yourself a liquidiser.
We're going to use this for the crumb and for the sauce.
So I'm going to cut this into half.
Just rip up half your garlic bread into here.
Give it a little wazz.
So that simple little trick
takes your beautiful garlic bread into a fine breadcrumb.
So let's do the second one.
Really, really nice.
So we've got the lovely crumb here.
I'll put that to one side.
Let's get on with the pasta sauce.
So we're going to start it off
with some olive oil in a pan.
A couple of tablespoons goes in,
and then the beginning of the story
is going to be some garlic. 2 cloves of garlic.
We just slice this up...
like that.
So medium heat.
Let's get that frying.
I'll take a little bit of this basil now.
I'll give you another little tip actually.
If you pick any herbs,
especially if they look a little bit sad,
put it in the water, they will refresh
and come back to life.
And then these stalks here,
you don't have to throw these away, just finely slice them.
They're still full of flavor
and we'll get them in with the garlic.
Now, let's talk about oregano.
I've got the regular stuff here that you'll see.
Just a little teaspoon I can put in my hand
and then put into the oil like that.
Then here I've got some posh Oregon.
It's not really posh. It looks posh.
It's just unprocessed.
I always think it's quite nice to get this.
If you can.
A little bit more fragrant.
So you can see it's just gently frying.
It smells really fragrant.
I've taken off the heat, so don't want to burn the garlic.
Really important to not burn garlic.
So look, we've got the leek.
So what I tend to do to clean it is just take the end off.
There.
Run my knife just down the leek like this.
Peel off the outside leaf,
and then I'm going to kind of treat it
like it's almost two different vegetables.
So I'll simply cut this in half.
I'll save this green
part for a soup or stew that I'm going to do this week.
Really, really nice. Nothing will go to waste.
And this lovely white pot here
I'm going to put into this pasta dish.
Now...
When leeks grow,
they always come out the ground, obviously,
and they pick up a little bit of mud,
dirt, grit, stuff like that. So let me show you.
This is the stalk end and what I want to do
is cut it in half lengthwise like that.
And then what you want to do
is wash it under the tap away from the stalk.
Just a quick little wash.
Also, what's nice
about giving it a quick little wash is that excess
little bit of water creates a little steam
that then creates a little more sort
of sweetness and softness.
So in we go with the leak.
I'll give it a little season with salt and pepper...
just to start the seasoning story.
And that's going to be on a medium heat now.
If you kind of just like slow cook that for 10 minutes,
it really kind of concentrates the sweetness.
It's utterly delicious.
So while that does its thing, I'm going to put some pasta
into my pan of water.
So 500 grams of frankly, any pasta you like.
So when I'm cooking pasta for a pasta bake,
I always undercook it.
So the pack says 12 minutes,
so I'm going to give this 8 minutes.
Then I'll show you what to do next.
So these leeks have had 10 minutes.
The pasta's cooked, drained and refreshed.
Now, to carry this sauce is a really beautiful old friend.
Tomatoes.
We're going to go in with 3 tins of beautiful
tinned tomatoes, and then I'll clean these
tins out with some water just to clean out the tin
use every last bit.
Bring this to the boil, let it simmer for 15 minutes
and then you could serve the sauce chunky and rustic.
But I'm going to liquidate it until it's silky smooth.
So look, that's had
sort of 10-15 minutes.
Look at that.
Just blipping away.
Have a little taste.
Oh, gorgeous.
This is your opportunity to adjust a little seasoning
if you need it.
If you want to make it a little hotter
with black pepper.
Of course, if you wanted to hit it with chili, you can.
I'm going to whizz it up now.
I'm gonna put most of it in there.
So whizz it up, whenever you're using hot things and liquidisers,
put the lid on for sure and put a tea towel on top.
I have decorated myself and the room
so many times.
Have a little look in there.
If you want to put some herbs in here now,
you can,
if you want to put a little cheese in there now,
you know, just a little bit, you can.
Nice.
I think having a liquid either or a hand blender
is a genuinely useful gadget.
So in we go with a sauce,
you can see the color change now from the deep red
to the almost orange sunshine.
Look at that.
Just beautiful.
Basically, we're done.
We'll go in with the lovely pasta.
Look at that.
Have a little taste.
Delicious!
I'm going to do a little layer of parmesan, about 50 grams
just to kind of create a little kind of gooeyness
when you put your spoon into it, it’s going to be delicious.
Beautiful.
And I'm actually going to hijack this a little bit
with a nice little hack.
It's a great vegetable that I love.
It sits in the freezer, is super convenient.
Frozen spinach.
Why would I use frozen spinach?
It's super convenient.
It comes
in these little portions of normally 80 gram pellets
just going to take
8 of these pellets and put it in and around this pan like that.
And I think that spinach works really well
with these flavors.
So look, beautiful colours.
Very excited about that.
I'm now just going to finish it
with that beautiful garlic breadcrumb.
I'm going to take half of it and sprinkle a nice fat layer
on top right to the edges.
And that will just cook
up really, really nicely.
What you can do with the rest of this is get like
some of these little freezer bags.
And I promise you this will be the handiest thing
to have in the freezer.
So the next time you roast a piece of fish,
right, sprinkle that on top in the oven.
Crunchy, beautiful.
You know, the next time you want to take
an everyday salad and make it, like, exciting,
just put that in a pan.
Get it golden, little golden sort of tiny croutons.
Crunch, deliciousness.
So this is a brilliant thing to have.
Next time you make a lasagna,
sprinkle that on top.
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
And no waste.
So this now goes in the oven
for about 20 minutes, 180 degrees Celsius.
When it's golden, when it's blipping away,
when it looks like you want to eat it, it’s ready
While that's cooking.
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Now back to the recipe.
So I know it's ready because I can smell it.
The room smells so good,
those amazing garlicky bread crumbs.
So here it is,
the beautiful pasta bake.
Look at that.
It's just beautiful.
Let it sit for a little bit.
What I would normally do is just put some of these
lovely basil leaves over the top.
They're in really good condition now.
They've been in the water. Look at that.
Smells incredible. Now, for me.
I always love having it with a lovely, simple salad.
So I've got a nice little salad here.
I'll just finish that with a little olive oil
that'll squeeze the lemon juice.
And that is an incredible lunch and incredible dinner.
Look at that.
I just love it.
Yes! So look, let's serve up.
let’s get a nice piece of that spinach.
Beautiful.
Really lovely.
Look at that. little parmesan over the top.
Right. Let's have a little try
It’s amazing colour.
Mm. It's so... so good.
That, my friends, is a brilliant principle recipe.
Take that. Run with it.
Put it into your family.
Honestly, they're going to love it.
So look if you want more recipes from me, you know, more batch
cooking recipes, more recipes, that sort of hero veggies
simply go jamieoliver.com and have
a little search around. It's all free and I hope you enjoy it.