Greg – Page 27 – The Moreton Pinkney Picayune

Three Cheese Pasta Bake – One Pot Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

500g giant pasta shells – Conchiglie
150g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 large handfuls of torn basil leaves
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
250g mascarpone
2 tbsp red pesto
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
900ml just boiled water
150g baby spinach
150g mozzarella
Parmesan to serve
Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180^o C fan. Chuck the pasta in a large, shallow pan and add the cherry tomatoes, half the basil, canned tomatoes, mascarpone, red pesto, tomato puree and garlic powder. Pour over the water and give everything a mix around. Cover and bake for 40 minutes, stirring halfway so you get a nice sauce.
Take the pasta out of the oven and add a really good pinch of salt and pepper. Add the spinach and stir together. Cover and return to the oven for 2-3 minutes until the spinach has wilted. Check the seasoning here and add more salt and pepper to taste.
Scatter over the remaining basil and rip over the mozzarella. Grate a good load of Parmesan over the top and return to the oven, without the lid, for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Three Cheese Pasta Bake – One Pot Recipe (PDF)

21 January 2024 – Amusements

A man walks into a bar with his dog and puts the dog on a barstool. The bartender asks the man what he wants to drink.

“I’ll have a bourbon and Coke.”

The man then turns to his dog and asks, “What are you going to have, Rover?”

“I’ll have a Scotch and soda–light on the soda,” says Rover.

The bartender is sceptical about the dog talking. “Come on,” he says, “that dog can’t talk — you’re a ventriloquist!”

“No, Rover can really talk. While I am in the restroom, you can have a conversation with him yourself, but don’t let him out of your sight. He is a very valuable dog.”

The man goes to the restroom. When he returns, the dog is gone.

“Hey, where’s my dog? I told you not to let him out of your sight.”

“Aw, I didn’t believe that Rover could talk, so I gave him a quarter and sent him to the drug store to buy me a paper.”

“Let’s go look for him,” said the man.

The two went to the drugstore. No Rover. They walked up and down nearby alleys and streets, but still no dog. Finally, they find Rover in the park romancing another dog.

Pointing his finger at Rover, the man says, “How come you are doing this? You have never done this before!”

“It’s the first time I ever had any money.”

14 January 2024

A chilly but largely dry week with lots of bright blue skies and freezing or near freezing temperatures. Allegedly, we may even get some snow this week although I am not holding my breath.

14 January 2024 – Amusements

If Carl sleeps six hours and requires two cups of coffee before he will get the baby, and Virginia sleeps four hours in 20-minute increments on the floor next to the baby, how many times can Carl tell Virginia he’s “so tired” before she schedules his vasectomy?

7 January 2024

Another wild and stormy week – what are the chances of that? Storm Henk has been responsible for this week’s climate calamity – more flooding, more saturated fields which can’t be doing much for the crop of winter wheat which is in the ground. Hmm, whoever decides the names for storms is already at “H” and we’re only seven days into the year. I suspect we’ll have to go around the alphabet several times if this trend continues.

7 January 2024 – Amusements

During a robbery, one of the robbers’ mask slid down.

He looked at a man and asked, “Did you see my face?”

The man replied, “Yes!” and the robber immediately shot him.

Then he asked a woman, “Did you see my face?”

She replied, “No, but my husband over there did.”

31 December 2023

Oh, it’s been a wild, wet and windy week – we’ve been battered by Storm Gerrit. As always, the north got battered much more significantly than did we but I tell you – this wind and rain is getting pretty tedious.