Beef and Eggplant Pasta Bake
Serves 5
Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients
500g rigatoni
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 white onion, peeled & finely diced
1 tbsp garlic, crushed
2 sprigs of thyme
750g beef mince
2 medium eggplants, diced medium
2 bay leaves
½ cup red wine
2 x 410g tin chopped tomatoes
Salt & pepper
Béchamel sauce
1L full cream milk
1 brown onion, peeled & cut in half
5 cloves
2 bay leaves
6 black peppercorns
300g butter
1 cup plain flour
1 cup grated pecorino
1 cup mozzarella
Method
For the Meat Sauce
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Heat olive oil in large frying pan on medium to high heat, add onion, garlic, thyme and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, without colouring the garlic.
Add mince, crushing any lumps with a spoon, cook until mince is browned. Next add eggplants and cook, for a further 3 minutes.
Add bay leaves, red wine and reduce heat to a simmer. Reduce wine by half, add tomatoes and stir through. Cook for 25-30 minutes, season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, in a pot of boiling salted water, add pasta and cook as per packet instructions.
For Béchamel Sauce
In a saucepan, place milk, onion, cloves, bay leaves and peppercorns and place on a low to medium heat, making sure milk slowly comes to the boil infusing all the flavours.
In another saucepan, place butter and melt over a low heat. Once melted, add flour and stir together with a wooden spoon continue to cook for 5 minutes stirring continuously to avoid browning.
When milk has boiled, turn the off heat and strain into another pan. When straining into pan, make sure to continually stir to eliminate any lumps.
Stir until the sauce thickens approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
Finally stir cheeses through sauce.
Assembly
Once pasta is cooked drain and return to pot and mix together with meat sauce. Pour pasta mixture into a large baking dish. Next ladle béchamel sauce over the top. Sprinkle some grated pecorino over the top.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve and enjoy with family and friends!
