Greek-style zucchini and minced meat rolls with kritharaki noodles

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 3 zucchinis
• 500 g minced meat, mixed or beef
• 2 m.-sized onion(s)
• 250 g noodles (kritharaki)
• 1 pack of sheep’s cheese
• 1 can of tomatoes, chopped
• 1 pack of tomatoes, pureed
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bunch thyme, fresh
• 100 g bacon, diced
• 1 egg(s)
• Olive oil, high quality
• salt and pepper
• sugar, brown
• oregano
• basil
• salt water
• possibly butter

Instructions

Working time approx. 10 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 35 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

Wash the zucchini and cut into long, 2-3 mm thick slices. Finely chop the onions, peel the garlic, and set aside. Cut the feta cheese into small cubes and finely chop the fresh herbs. In a bowl, combine the ground meat, thyme, feta cheese, egg, half of the finely diced onions, and a crushed garlic clove. Season generously with salt, pepper, paprika, dried oregano, basil, and cayenne pepper. Now place two zucchini slices overlapping on a board, season with salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of the minced meat mixture to each slice and roll up. Secure with two toothpicks, if desired. Repeat this process until all the minced meat is left. Leftover zucchini slices can be cut into sticks and added to the sauce later. Now fry the rolls seam-down in olive oil in a heatproof pan for approx. 1-2 minutes, turn them over and fry all over. When all sides are nicely browned, remove from the pan, cover and set aside. Boil salted water for the pasta. In the previously used pan, fry the remaining onions and bacon and any leftover zucchini. Crush in the remaining garlic and pour in the can of tomatoes. If you like a lot of sauce, add the entire packet of passata; otherwise, half is enough. Now add 1 heaped teaspoon of sugar, season generously with salt and pepper, and simmer for 10 minutes. Return the zucchini rolls to the pan and place everything in the oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta. I personally add 2-3 knobs of butter to the drained pasta, as this firstly makes it taste better and secondly prevents it from sticking together.