I'm going to show you how to make the most delicious, straightforward pasta bake with sweet leeks, tomatoes, basil, parmesan, and the most amazing,
garlicky crumb. We're going to do
a big batch of it. You could either feed loads of people or you could portion it off, put it in the fridge or the freezer, for meals for another day. But also a hack of turning this the everyday pre-bought garlic
bread into a thing of joy. The most amazing garlic
bread crumb. So let's start off with that. First up, get yourself a liquidiser. We're going to use this for
the crumb and for the sauce. So I'm going to cut this into
half. Just rip up half your garlic
bread into here. Give it a little wazz. So that simple little trick takes your beautiful garlic
bread into a fine breadcrumb. So let's do the second one. Really, really nice. So we've got the lovely crumb
here. I'll put that to one side. Let's get on with the pasta sauce. So we're going to start it off with some olive oil in a pan. A couple of tablespoons
goes in, and then the beginning of the story is going to be some garlic. 2 cloves of garlic. We just slice this up... like that. So medium heat. Let's get that frying. I'll take a little bit of this basil now. I'll give you another little tip actually. If you pick any herbs, especially if they look a little bit sad, put it in the water, they will refresh and come back to life. And then these stalks here, you don't have to throw these
away, just finely slice them. They're still full of flavor and we'll
get them in with the garlic. Now, let's talk about oregano. I've got the regular stuff
here that you'll see. Just a little teaspoon
I can put in my hand and then put into the oil
like that. Then here I've got some posh
Oregon. It's not really posh.
It looks posh. It's just unprocessed. I always think it's quite
nice to get this. If you can. A little bit more fragrant. So you can see it's
just gently frying. It smells really fragrant. I've taken off the heat, so
don't want to burn the garlic. Really important
to not burn garlic. So look, we've got the leek. So what I tend to do to clean
it is just take the end off. There. Run my knife just down the leek like this. Peel off the outside leaf, and then I'm going to kind of
treat it like it's almost two different
vegetables. So I'll simply cut this in half. I'll save this green part for a soup or stew that
I'm going to do this week. Really, really nice.
Nothing will go to waste. And this lovely white pot here I'm going to put into this
pasta dish. Now... When leeks grow, they always come out
the ground, obviously, and they pick up
a little bit of mud, dirt, grit, stuff like that.
So let me show you. This is the stalk end
and what I want to do is cut it in half lengthwise
like that. And then what you want to do is wash it under the tap
away from the stalk. Just a quick little wash. Also, what's nice about giving it a quick
little wash is that excess little bit of water creates
a little steam that then creates
a little more sort of sweetness and softness. So in we go with the leak. I'll give it a little
season with salt and pepper... just to
start the seasoning story. And that's
going to be on a medium heat now. If you kind of just like slow cook that for 10 minutes, it really kind of concentrates
the sweetness. It's utterly delicious. So while that does its thing,
I'm going to put some pasta into my pan of water. So 500 grams of frankly,
any pasta you like. So when I'm cooking pasta
for a pasta bake, I always undercook it. So the pack says 12 minutes, so I'm going to give this
8 minutes. Then I'll show you
what to do next. So these leeks have had 10 minutes. The pasta's cooked,
drained and refreshed. Now, to carry this sauce is a
really beautiful old friend. Tomatoes. We're going to go in
with 3 tins of beautiful tinned tomatoes,
and then I'll clean these tins out with some water
just to clean out the tin use every last bit. Bring this to the boil,
let it simmer for 15 minutes and then you could serve
the sauce chunky and rustic. But I'm going to liquidate
it until it's silky smooth. So look, that's had sort of 10-15 minutes. Look at that. Just blipping away. Have a little taste. Oh, gorgeous. This is your opportunity
to adjust a little seasoning if you need it. If you want to make it
a little hotter with black pepper. Of course, if you wanted
to hit it with chili, you can. I'm going to whizz it up now. I'm gonna put most of it
in there. So whizz it up, whenever you're
using hot things and liquidisers, put the lid on for sure
and put a tea towel on top. I have decorated myself
and the room so many times. Have a little look in there. If you want to put some herbs
in here now, you can, if you want to put
a little cheese in there now, you know,
just a little bit, you can. Nice. I think having a liquid either
or a hand blender is a genuinely useful gadget. So in we go with a sauce, you can see the color change
now from the deep red to the almost orange sunshine. Look at that. Just beautiful. Basically, we're done. We'll go in
with the lovely pasta. Look at that. Have a little taste. Delicious! I'm going to do a little layer
of parmesan, about 50 grams just to kind of create
a little kind of gooeyness when you put your spoon into
it, it’s going to be delicious. Beautiful. And I'm actually going
to hijack this a little bit with a nice little hack. It's a great vegetable
that I love. It sits in the freezer, is super convenient. Frozen spinach. Why would I use frozen
spinach? It's super convenient. It comes in these little portions
of normally 80 gram pellets just going to take 8 of these pellets and put it in
and around this pan like that. And I think that spinach works
really well with these flavors. So look, beautiful colours. Very excited about that. I'm now
just going to finish it with that beautiful garlic breadcrumb. I'm going to take half of it
and sprinkle a nice fat layer on top right to the edges. And that will just cook up really, really nicely. What you can do with
the rest of this is get like some of these little freezer
bags. And I promise you
this will be the handiest thing to have in the freezer. So the next time you roast
a piece of fish, right, sprinkle
that on top in the oven. Crunchy, beautiful. You know,
the next time you want to take an everyday salad
and make it, like, exciting, just put that in a pan. Get it golden, little golden
sort of tiny croutons. Crunch, deliciousness. So this is a brilliant thing
to have. Next time you make a lasagna, sprinkle that on top. It's the gift that keeps on giving. And no waste. So this now goes in the oven for about 20 minutes,
180 degrees Celsius. When it's golden,
when it's blipping away, when it looks like
you want to eat it, it’s ready While that's cooking. Please click the like button
and give us some love. And don't forget to subscribe. Oh, and remember to turn on
that notification bell so you know what's happening. Now back to the recipe. So I know it's ready
because I can smell it. The room smells so good, those amazing
garlicky bread crumbs. So here it is, the beautiful pasta bake. Look at that. It's just beautiful. Let it sit for a little bit. What I would normally do
is just put some of these lovely basil leaves over the top. They're in really good
condition now. They've been in the water.
Look at that. Smells incredible.
Now, for me. I always love having it
with a lovely, simple salad. So I've got a nice
little salad here. I'll just finish that
with a little olive oil that'll squeeze
the lemon juice. And that is an incredible
lunch and incredible dinner. Look at that. I just love it. Yes! So look, let's serve up. let’s get a nice piece of that spinach. Beautiful. Really lovely. Look at that. little parmesan over the top. Right. Let's have a little try It’s amazing colour. Mm. It's so... so good. That, my friends, is
a brilliant principle recipe. Take that. Run with it. Put it into your family. Honestly,
they're going to love it. So look if you want more recipes
from me, you know, more batch cooking recipes, more recipes,
that sort of hero veggies simply go jamieoliver.com and have a little search around. It's all free and I hope you enjoy it.
