Delicious yet so Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake, the perfect family meal. Why not get the kids in the kitchen with you to cook this? The ultimate cheese lovers dream! Crispy melted cheese on top of creamy cheesy pasta, so good!
My daughter has to earn her scout’s chef badge by planning and cooking a vegetarian meal. Her all-time favourite meal to eat is Macaroni Cheese, so this is what she chose! However we didn’t have Macaroni Pasta, so she worked with what we had, and made an Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake!
What pasta to use for pasta bake?
We used Spiralini shaped pasta, but to be honest any will do! Penne, Fusilli, Shells, Farfalle, Rigatoni, Cavatappi. You choose!
First cook the pasta for the time given on the packet. Whilst the pasta cooks prepare the cheese sauce. It is best to use a hob to oven pan, like this Lightweight Cast Aluminium dish. Otherwise use a non-stick pan and tip into an oven dish with the pasta to finish off in the oven.
Melt butter in a pan, add in flour and stir to make a roux, cook for about two minutes.
Then turn heat up whilst adding the milk bit by bit, continuously stirring with a whisk so it does not go lumpy. Once all milk has been added, bring to the boil and continue to whisk until sauce is thick. You now have a white sauce.
What cheese to use in Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake?
Best to use medium to mature cheddar in the sauce. Mild Cheddar will not give enough flavour. For the topping, we often add parmesan as well as the medium to mature cheddar, to give an even richer flavour!
Turn heat off and add cheese to the smooth white sauce to make your cheese sauce. Add your seasoning, black pepper and salt.
Now tip the cooked pasta into the white sauce stirring it into the sticky cheesy sauce!
Top with, yes you guessed it MORE cheese! 🙂 We did say it was Cheesy! Pop it into a preheated oven for 20 minutes until cheese has melted and is just starting to go golden.
Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake ready to serve! My daughter choose to serve up with garlic bread and a side salad.
Here is the proud chef showing off her dish! She is looking forward to showing this post to her scout’s team and earning her chef badge!
How many does this serve?
The 4 of us ate this Cheesy Pasta Bake, we still had enough leftover for the kids to have the next day for dinner too! So it serves 6!
As mentioned earlier this had to be a vegetarian option as requested by the scout’s team. But you can always add ham, cooked bacon or cooked chicken into the sauce before putting into the oven if a meatier flavour is desired?
Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 500 g (5 cups) Pasta We used Spiralini, however Penne, Fusilli, Shells, Farfalle, Rigatoni, Cavatappi will work fine.
- 3 ½ tbsp Butter
- 2 ½ tbsp Plain Flour
- 500 ml (2 ¼cups) Semi Skimmed Milk or full fat milk
- 160 g (1 ½ cup) Medium or Mature Cheddar grated
- Salt & Pepper to taste
To top
- 100 g (1 cup) Medium or Mature Cheddar grated
- 50 g (½ cup) Parmesan optional if like a strong cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F.
- Cook pasta to packet instructions. Meanwhile, prepare the cheese sauce.
- Melt butter in a pan, add the flour stir for 2 mins until smooth.
- Gradually add milk 100ml( ½ cup) at a time whisking until smooth before adding the next 100 ml.
- Once all milk added, bring to boil then lower to simmer. Add salt & pepper and stir for 5 minutes.
- Turn heat off and add grated cheese stir through until melted.
- Drain & add cooked pasta to the cheese sauce, stir through.
- Top with more grated cheese. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes, until cheese has melted and is just starting to turn golden.
Nutrition
Hope you enjoyed this Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake as much as we did?
Don’t forget to leave us some comments below, we love to hear how you got on! 🙂
Don’t forget to check out our other vegetarian dishes
I made this last week for my husband his favourite it was absolutely delicious thank you 😊