Spirali with buffalo mozzarella and basil
I promised elemnar some time ago that I'd post a pasta/mozzarella/tomato recipe I found a while back. Here's the original destructions, taken from the back of a packet of Tesco's pasta:
Spirali with buffalo mozzarella and basil
Serves 4. Cooking time 25-30 minutes.
300g spirali pasta
250g buffalo mozzarella, cut into chunks
300ml passata
4tbsps extra virgin olive oil
30g basil leaves, torn
70g Parmesan cheese, grated
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C
Boil the pasta for 5 minutes, drain and return the pasta back to the pan and combines with the mozzarella, passata, extra virgin olive oil and basil. Season with sea salt and black pepper.
Transfer the pasta to a lightly greased ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the top with a layer of grated Parmesan and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned.
Serve immediately with a green salad
As always, I made a few changes when cooking it. To begin with I did my usual halving of the ingredients to make it fit the ceramic dish I've got, giving me one portion for today and a second that I'll fridge for tomorrow (give it a few minutes in the microwave to reheat). I also used ordinary mozzarella (buffalo mozzarella is unobtainium around here) and dried basil. And finally, since I didn't have any passata I used half a carton of chopped tomatoes. That actually worked out quite well, which is handy as I usually have a few cartons/tins of chopped tomatoes in the cupboard - they keep for ages and come in handy for several recipes.