Winter Vegetable Pasta Bake.

So, a blog! I'll test the water with one of my favourite recipes for this icy time of year..

Sweet potatoes are one of the most glorious autumnal treats. To bulk out a spicy soup, infused with cumin in a sweet curry and roasted with honey. Here they make the perfect ginger flavoured crust to this easy mid week bake.

Ingredients: N/B measures are all approximate.

2 - 3 large sweet potatoes.

1 red onion.

3 large cloves of garlic.

a generous shake of dried basil & ground coriander.

a tablespoon of olive oil.

350g diced closed cup mushrooms.

200g diced aubergine.

a tin of tomatoes. (can be chopped, I like to smoosh the whole ones with a spoon as the mixture reduces, and they tend to leave glorious tomato chunks in the final dish, more so than the pre-chopped tins.)

a tin full of tap water.

a hefty squeeze of tomato paste.

a dash of dried oregano.

a handful of spinach leaves.

a teaspoon of pulped fresh ginger.

a small hunk of butter.

a sprinking of cayenne pepper. (can be substituted for paprika)

200g dried penne pasta.

Method:

Start by dicing the red onion, add it to a large non stick pan with olive oil, the garlic (crushed and finely diced) the coriander and dried basil. Heat from standing, whilst stirring, and fry off for about five minutes. Take this time to roughly chop the sweet potatoes. I like to leave the skins on, they're wonderfully nutritious and hold a surprising amount of the distinctive flavour. Once they're cooked you won't notice the rough texture.

This is probably a good time to set the oven to 200 degrees.

When the onion is softened add the mushrooms and aubergine, giving everything a stir for about a minute, so the flavours have enough time to get to the veg. Add the tin of tomatoes, then rinse the tin with tap water and add this excess to the pan as well. Add the oregano and tomato paste then let the mixture simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes, so the ingredients have softened and the tomatoes have begun to reduce, but there's still plenty of juice to cook the pasta in the oven.

Whilst this is simmering, add the sweet potatoes to boiling water and let them cook for about 10 minutes, until they've softened enough for mashing. Then drain, and add the ginger and butter before mashing thoroughly.

Now, the vegetable mixture should be looking and smelling glorious. Chuck the spinach leaves and pasta into it and give it the speediest of stirs before putting the whole lot into a deep oven dish. (Mine's about 3 inches deep and a 30 cm square) Now take your sweet potato mash and yup, you guessed it, spread the whole lot over the top to seal the dish. Take care here as the potato is quite heavy and has a tendency to sink in vegetable mix, I find it easiest to spread a bit on at a time with the biggest knife I own. Finally add a sprinkling of cayenne and use a fork to make a few crispy peaks if you wish.

Et Voila! It should take about 20 - 30 minutes in the oven uncovered, just wait for the potatoes to turn golden brown and that marvelous winter bake smell to fill the kitchen. To re-heat, cover and bake for about 20 minutes on 200 degrees again.