Italian pasta casserole with tomato, mozzarella and zucchini

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 500 g minced beef
• 1 can of tomatoes, peeled and chopped (400 g)
• 1 onion(s), diced
• 1 packet basil (frozen), chopped
• 2 balls of mozzarella
• 500 g pasta (farfalle)
• 200 g cheese (Emmental), grated
• 2 zucchinis
• 1 garlic clove(s), diced
• ½ tube(s) tomato paste
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• 1 tsp sambal oelek
• some water
• n. B. Salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

simple and delicious

Brown the minced meat with the diced onion until very crispy. Deglaze with stock cubes dissolved in a little water. Add the tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Simmer for about 25 minutes. Then add the quartered zucchini. Simmer for another 10 minutes (you don’t want the zucchini pieces to get too soft!). In the meantime, cook the pasta until al dente and then transfer it to a baking dish. Finely chop the mozzarella and fold it into the pasta. Season the minced meat with salt, as the mozzarella absorbs a lot of the salt during baking. Add about 1/2 a tube of tomato paste until the sauce thickens a little. Season with sambal oelek. Then add the meat sauce to the pasta in the baking dish and mix everything together. Sprinkle with Emmental cheese. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 25 minutes. Tip: Instead of pepper, I prefer to spice things up with sambal olek. Ajvar is also very good. Maybe add a little cream for a nicer color.