Just perfect for any evening when you crave some Mediterranean dish that fills you up and provides you with all the nutrients your body needs. While baking, you can do the things you want, because it doesn't require you to frequently check on the pan.
I recommend using short pasta for this one as they cook more evenly in the pan. I used red wine in this dish but you can totally ditch that and just use veggie broth instead.
You can use store-brought ajvar or make your own with this recipe.
I used vegan trappista (or monk) cheese and vegan mozzarella. Trappista cheese is very popular in Hungary and we also have a world famous monastery where they make trappista cheese, but I am not sure if you can find vegan trappista cheese on the other parts of the world, so feel free to replace it with any kind of other vegan cheese you prefer.
YIELDS
2 servings
PREP TIME
COOK TIME
TOTAL TIME
- 120 g GF short cut pasta
- 1/2 can crushed tomatoes
- 1/2 cup oil packed sun dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 cup frozen spinach
- 1 tsp each dried basil, oregano, parsley
- to taste salt, pepper
- to taste chili flakes
- 1 cup red wine or veggie broth
- 1/2 cup ajvar
- on top vegan cheese, shredded (I used vegan trappista and mozzarella)
- optional, 2 handful soy balls/curls
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Prepare a baking dish. I used a glass Jena dish for this but any other non sticky dish will do it. If your dish is a sticky material, you might want to greasy it our first.
3. Add the ajvar, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped sun dried tomatoes to the dish along with 3 tbs of the oil from sun dried tomatoes. Season with herbs, garlic, chili flakes, salt, pepper.
4. Mix in red wine/broth, spinach and 1/2 cup water.
Give it a good stir to combine.
5. Add in dry pasta and soy balls, stir to combine.
Top the pasta with shredded vegan cheese to fully cover.
6. Either use the top of the Jena dish to cover or if you don’t have, tightly cover with a foil.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes covered and about 10–15 minutes uncovered until vegan cheese has melted and pasta bake is bubbly.
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Photo: Imola Toth
