Saturday Night Sour Cream Pasta Bake

We are having friends for dinner tonight and I was scratching my head about what to cook. Then I realised that the dinner on my meal plan was just fine. It's one of those dishes that can easily be dressed up or down, depending on the occasion or your mood.

It is such an easy dish to make. It takes about 12 minutes to put together (or as long as it takes for your noodles to cook) and 20 minutes in the oven. You can be serving it in just over half an hour - perfect for a quick Saturday night dinner (or any other night).

While it's in the oven I get the side dishes ready. I serve it with garlic and parmesan bruschetta, pan fried in butter and a huge green salad made with lots of lettuce, celtuce, spinach, capsicum, red onion and tiny tomatoes from the garden that I oven dried at the end of summer and store in flavoured olive oil - yummo!

There's not even a stray noodle left in the dish when I make it, and it makes eight generous serves!

At 77 cents per serve, depending on whether you buy your cottage cheese and sour cream or make them, and where you buy your mince, it is cheap enough for family meals and still special enough to impress guests without breaking the budget.

Saturday Night Sour Cream Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
750g minced beef
1 jar tomato based pasta sauce - whatever flavour you prefer, or use homemade
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
250g pasta spirals
1/2 cup sour cream
1-1/4 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup sliced spring onions
1 cup tasty cheese, grated

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Brown the mince in a large fry pan. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce, salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Stir, then simmer while you prepare the other ingredients.

Cook pasta spirals until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Add to pasta and stir. Add spring onions and stir. Stir gently, you don't want to break up the noodles.

To assemble, add half of the noodles to a baking dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then sprinkle on half the grated cheddar. Repeat with pasta, meat, then a final layer of cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the all cheese is melted.