Tomato & Burrata pasta bake

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

10-12 dried pasta sheets (like the ones for lasagna, DO NOT use dried egg pasta sheets, they are too brittle and break easily)

3 Tbls. olive oil

25g butter

2 (400g) tins San Marzano tomato

1 tbls. Tomato paste 

1 brown onion, peeled and diced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. sugar

Salt

Pinch of Chilli flake (optional)

1 handful basil leaves

1 bu. Silverbeet greens or cavolo nero or beet tops, stripped from the stem

150 ml cream

80g ricotta

1 ball burrata

60g grated mozzarella

25g butter

Freshly grated nutmeg

Parmesan 

Fresh Basil to garnish

Black pepper

Method:

Firstly, bring a large pot of water to the boil and season it with salt. Drop your pasta sheets in and cook them for 2 minutes, then remove them from the water (seperate them if they have stuck to each other) and spread them out on a clean tea towel. When cool enough to handle, slice them in half lengthways. Keep the boiling water on the stove.

If using silverbeet or beet tops, add the stems into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes, next add in the leaves and cook for one more minute. Drain the leaves and stems. Slice the stems into thin pieces and roughly chop or tear the cooled leaves. Squeeze as much water out of the leaves as you can and set them aside.

In a medium sized pot or pan, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil and 25g of butter, adding in a pinch of salt and a pinch of the chili flakes. Sauté this over medium/low heat for 10 minutes. Next, add in the tomato paste, give it a stir and add in the tins of tomato. You can crush the whole tomatoes with your hand before they are dropped into the pot or using a spoon in the pot. Add some more salt. Let this simmer slowly for 15 minutes. At the last moment, add in the sugar and the handful of basil leaves and stir to combine. Use a stick blender or a stand up blender to blend the sauce and check for seasoning. Adjust with salt and a bit more sugar if the tomatoes are particularly sour. Set aside.

In a wide shallow enamel cast pan or baking tray or glass baking dish, add a spoon full of tomato sauce and spread it on the bottom of the dish. Add the strips of pasta on top of the sauce quite loosely so they stand up and curl and create little pockets to add sauce and cheese. Then add a bit more sauce and begin dotting the surface with spoonfuls of ricotta, strips of greens and their stems, spoonfuls of burrata and then finally the grated mozzarella and a really good sprinkle of salt. Pour the cream over all of this and add any remaining tomato sauce on the top. Grate parmesan cheese over the top and also add a whisper of freshly grated nutmeg (not a lot! 3-4 rasps). Finally, dot the top of the dish with the other 25g of butter. Try to ensure lots of the pasta is sticking up out of the sauce and cheese so that bit gets crispy (the best bit!).

Cover this pan with a lid or aluminium foil and bake at 180C for 20 minutes. Uncover and turn heat up to 200C and bake a further 15-20 minutes until browned and bubbly. You can place this under the broiler for 2-3 minutes if you want some extra browning.

Garnish with some more grated parmesan cheese, fresh basil leaves and freshly cracked black pepper. Allow it to sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.