Proper Tasty Pasta

A great recipe to try and tempt fussy eaters! Try varying the veg in the tomato sauce - butternut squash, sweet potato & peppers work well. And don’t forget you can always make a big batch and freeze portions for a quick pasta meal on busy days.

Skills Check

Follow a recipe; follow food safety & hygiene rules; tidy away; use measuring spoons; use a jug to measure liquids; use weighing scales; chop using bridge/claw technique; use a box grater safely; crush garlic; use a colander; use a hob | blender (with adult supervision).

Equipment

Saucepans, frying pan, knife, chopping board, box grater, wooden spoon, measuring spoons, measuring jug, hand blender, colander, weighing scales, garlic crusher.

Allergens

Gluten | Celery | Eggs | Sulphites

Please note the allergens listed above are indicative only.  Allergens vary depending on brand; check the labels on the products you use.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 250 g passata
• 100 ml water
• 1 medium carrot, washed and grated
• 1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 small courgette, washed and grated
• 2 mushrooms, washed and sliced
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup (reduced salt and sugar)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp yeast extract
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 125 g wholewheat penne pasta
• 225 g turkey mince

Method

1. Heat half the oil in a saucepan.  Add the chopped onion and cook over a medium heat, stirring often until the onion is soft.
2. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the grated carrot, courgette and sliced mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the passata, tomato ketchup, and herbs. Bring to simmering point and cook over a low heat for about 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile heat the other half of the oil in  a frying pan and add the turkey mince over a medium heat, turning often and breaking clumps up with a wooden spoon so it browns evenly. Then add yeast extract and boiling water and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, for around 20 minutes.
6. In another saucepan, bring a pan of water to the boil and add the pasta. Boil until the pasta is just tender (about 10-12 minutes) and drain off the water using a colander.
   Blend the tomato sauce until smooth using a hand-held blender.
7. Add the cooked turkey mince and pasta to the sauce, stir well and allow to simmer together for another few minutes.
8. Divide between bowls to serve.

So thinking about Proper Tasty Pasta ...

Pasta is low in fat and a good source of carohydrate and fibre. Wholewheat varieties contain 2.5 times more fibre than white, and a diet rich in wholegrain has been shown to lower the risk of diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

Tomatoes (passata) are really good for us containing a wide range of vitamins and minerals. They also contain lycopene, a type of antioxidant which can help protect our bodies from disease.

Nutritional Information

per 475g serving
% of an adult's reference intake
Typical values per 100g: Energy 477kJ / 113kcal

Notes

A traffic light system is used on nutrition labels to make it easier to see which foods and drinks are lower in calories, fat, sugar and salt. Try and choose more ‘greens’ and ‘ambers’ and fewer ‘reds’, and stick to smaller portions of ‘reds’.

Just because a recipe or a food has a red traffic light doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it. Understanding why a food or recipe might have a red light can be helpful. For example oily fish is high in total fat and so any recipe containing oily fish is likely to be ‘red’ for fat. But it is recommended that we eat oily fish at least once a week because the type of fat it contains is beneficial for our health.

% Reference Intakes are also shown. Reference Intakes are guidelines about the approximate amount of particular nutrients and energy required for a healthy diet (based on an average-sized woman doing an average amount of physical activity). Most children will require less than these Reference Intakes. The contribution of one serving of a food or drink to the Reference Intake for each nutrient is expressed as a percentage.