Baked macaroni with peas in tomato, minced meat and cream cheese sauce

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 500 g macaroni, short, otherwise break yourself
• 250 g peas, frozen
• 800 g minced meat, mixed or just minced beef
• 1 vegetable onion(s)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 stalk(s) Celery, optional
• 800 g tomatoes, peeled or chopped, from the can
• 4 tsp beef broth powder
• 1 can mushrooms, sliced, optional
• 300 g cream cheese
• 250 g gratin cheese
• some basil, preferably fresh
• some oregano
• some vegetable oil
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 40 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes

simple and very tasty

Note: The exact ratio of ingredients is not important, as long as you make sure there is enough liquid, as the macaroni will cook in the sauce in the oven. Arrange the macaroni and frozen peas in a large casserole dish. Dice the onion and celery into small cubes and chop the garlic. Sauté the onion, celery, and garlic with the ground beef in a large pot in vegetable oil until the beef is browned. Add the tomatoes (don’t discard the cans yet) and stir everything together. If using whole tomatoes, roughly chop them with a wooden spoon. Fill the cans of tomatoes with water, toss them a bit, and add the water to the pot. Bring to a boil, add the cream cheese, and stir until melted and the sauce has a uniform bright red color. Season with beef broth. Mix very well to avoid lumps. Add the mushrooms, if desired. Stir in the basil and oregano (roughly chopped if fresh). Season with salt and pepper. Spread the sauce over the macaroni and peas in the baking dish, ensuring all the macaroni is covered. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven at 175°C (convection oven) or 200°C (top/bottom heat) for 30 minutes.