Matt’s Scooby pasta

scooby1.jpg

Serves 6

Cooking time: 1 hour

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Not Scooby pasta at all and I never did discover why Matt called this dish Scooby pasta. It is however a really tasty fairly quick midweek meal and was his favourite for years.

Ingredients
500g beef mince * 
1 tbsp olive oil 
1 medium onions, finely chopped 
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 
2 tbsp tomato purée 
1 x 400g tin tomatoes chopped or pulped  
1 tsp mixed Italian herbs 
1 tbsp sugar 
1 beef stock pot  
350g cavatappi pasta (also known as cellentani, amori, spirali, or tortiglione) 
300ml double cream 
180g cheddar cheese, grated 
Salt 
Pepper 

* I like to buy steak, chunk it up and mince it myself because you can put the exact amount of fat you want and you can pick whatever meat you like the look of the most and, the thing I like the most, there is never any risk of getting gristle 

If you are mincing your own meat then cut the meat into chunks and season with salt, pepper and the herbs before you mince it.

Method
Put a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil and preheat your oven to 180c.

Meanwhile, put 1 tbsp oil in a pan that can go into the oven and add the mince and salt and pepper and cook the mince over a high heat until brown, breaking up the mince as you fry.  You need to cook the mince until all of the juice that has come out of the meat has almost disappeared.  Add the onion and cook for a around 5 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and continue to cook for a few more minutes.  While the vegetables are cooking, the meat will be browning and caramelising on the bottom. 

Once your water boils, tip in your pasta in and cook according to the packet instructions.

Add the tomato purée, mix well and cook for a minutes or so, stirring it through as you do.  Add the tomatoes, herbs, stock pot, sugar and plenty of black pepper.  Mix thoroughly and then put about 50mls ish of water into the tomato tin, swirl around and tip into your pan. Leave the heat high and cook, stirring from time to time as you finish off.

Meanwhile into a small pan, over a low medium heat warm through the double cream.  Just before it boils turn off the heat, put the cheese into the cream and stir until melted. 

Remove a cup of pasta water and then drain the pasta. Put the pasta into the sauce, thoroughly mix through and add the reserved pasta water if needed to make is ‘saucy’. Put the cheese sauce over the top and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.