Rikki's Pasta Bake

So tonight pasta bake was on the menu. I have never made a proper pasta bake before (I don't think mac and cheese out of a box counts) and I have only eaten once I think before tonight. I remember the first time I ate it - whilst I was at uni and living in college. We used to have pot luck dinners where everyone made a dish and brought it along to share. This one girl brought a bacon pasta bake along and I tried it and it was awful. A disgusting fatty, oily concoction that I think mainly came out of a jar and it was a lurid orange colour. Not very appetising to say the least. Anyway after that I never showed interest in pasta bake again... until I bought a recipe book called "A little bit of this, a little bit of that" (yes I know another cookbook) which had a yummy sounding pasta bake in it. It inspired me to make my own (which ended up nothing like the one in the book) and here is the recipe:

Ingredients ~

• 300g rigatoni pasta
• 500mL plain pasta sauce
• 1/2 carrot, grated
• 3 large mushrooms, sliced
• 100g ham, thinly sliced
• 250g ricotta
• 75g parmesan, grated
• 1tbsp milk
• 2 eggs
• small handful of basil, ripped into smaller pieces
• cracked pepper

To Cook ~

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees
• Cook the pasta until al dente.
• Whilst pasta is cooking whisk the eggs and milk together. Add a tablespoon of the ricotta and a sprinkle of the parmesan and combine. 
• Combine the pasta and sauce in the pan until combined well.
• In a lasagne dish put 1/3 of the pasta mixture as the base layer. Dollop over half the remaining ricotta and sprinkle over half the remaining parmesan. 
• Add another layer of the pasta mixture and top with the mushroom and ham slices. Dollop over the remaining ricotta and sprinkle the remaining parmesan. 
• Put the rest of the pasta mixture on top and then top with the egg mixture. 
• Sprinkle with the basil and pepper to taste.
• Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for 10 mins. Remove the foil and bake for a further 10 mins.
• Serve and enjoy :)

yummy! I wish I had smellivision to share it all because it smelt sooo good!