Serves: 2

Difficulty 2/5

Time: 30 minutes

Who doesn’t love a hearty pasta bake after a long winter’s day? With a crispy cheese top layer, the crunch from the broccoli and the meatiness of the “sausages”, this dish is a perfect mouth-watering meal. While this dish is simple, it is full of flavour and hearty goodness. The special part of this recipe is that the ingredients used don’t have to be the same each time, it is very easy to throw in a bit of everything out of the kitchen cupboard (within reason of course…!)

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion

• 3/4 stems of broccoli

• 1 pepper

• 2 cloves of garlic

• Half a jar of tomato passata

• 1 tbsp of tomato puree

• 2 tsp of harissa paste (optional)

• 2 portions of pasta (I used penne, but any pasta shape will work)

• 3 vegetarian/vegan sausages

• Cheese to top (optional)

• Salt and pepper

• 2 tsp paprika

• Chilli flakes (optional)

• Olive oil

Method

Heat oven to the temperature the sausages require to cook. Place sausages in the oven.

While the sausages are cooking, in a pan on a medium heat sweat off the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft.

Add in the paprika and cook off for a couple of minutes, stirring to combine with the onions and garlic.

Chop the peppers into pieces and add them into the pan with the onions and garlic. Again, cook until they’re soft.

Meanwhile, boil a pan of water with a sprinkle of salt ready to cook the pasta and broccoli. When the water is boiled, add in the pasta and cook for the required time (usually about 10 minutes if using dried pasta). A few minutes before the pasta is ready, add the broccoli to the pan of tomatoes and cook.

In the pan with the onions, garlic and peppers, add in half a jar of passata, tomato paste and the harissa.

Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Then, add in the cooked broccoli, pasta and sausages, chopped into pieces.

Place the mixture into an oven proof dish, cover the top with grated cheese and put it under the grill or in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and starts to crisp.

Dig in!

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