Pasta Tomato and Sardine Bake

Today is UN International Food Day, and with that being so, why not share something simple I whipped up yesterday after being out for my second walk of the day.

I was feeling a little peckish and I wanted to make sure I was going to be getting my protein that along with other nutrients are important during any lifestyle change. During this last year I have been doing a great deal of reading and re-educating myself regarding the foods I eat. While I will not be giving you everything I will be including links to things I believe you should know about, because I know that in understanding them, it has helped me change. Yesterday, I wanted something relatively quick and something I could make with what ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients:
For one very filling serving of about 850 calories total or it could easily be split in half

Cherry tomatoes – 1 cup halved
Yellow onion – 1 medium diced
Garlic – 1 clove finely chopped
Extra virgin cold pressed Olive Oil – one table spoon
Pasta – 1 cup cooked
1 medium egg
1 can sardines in water
Turmeric – 1/2 teaspoon
Oregano – 1/2 teaspoon
Ground Flax Seed – one or two tablespoons
Butter – unsalted 1 tablespoon

While it may be nearly 850 calories, it is a complete meal! And if you take the time to read on you will understand why!

The first thing that I saw was a bowl full of cherry tomatoes on the counter. Well a cup of those would clearly give me a greater part of my daily requirements of vitamins C, A, K, E; potassium from the potassium citrate, lycopene,lutein and zeaxanthin. Sure a lot of small things and big words but all good for you, and that was just the first of things that were going to be cooked up together.

I never balk at using garlic and onions in anything I cook and today was going to be a multistage process, though still child's play regarding how it is all put together. Those two ingredients would also provide me with a number of good things for my body. Including allicin vitamins B6 and C, dietary fibre, manganese, molybdenum, potassium, selenium and calcium. There there are plenty of other good things in those to ingredients to this dish, but I though I would give you a few of the primary ones.

I figure, I could do my garlic, onions and tomatoes in a pan with about at table spoon of extra virgin olive oil as my my cooking medium, and while was doing this nice and slowly, I would set my water to boil for my pasta, and pre-heat my oven to about 375 degrees Fahrenheit or about 190 degrees Celsius. As my finely diced onions and chopped softened up in the hot olive oil I turned my attention to cutting the cherry tomatoes into halves until I was able to fill a cup with them. By the time I had this done, my water was just about boiling and ready for the pasta. So I mixed my halved cherry tomatoes in with my onions and garlic which were starting to take on a golden tint to them and they smelt divine.

Once my the water for my pasta came to a boil I figured I had enough pasta left for it to come to one cup ready pasta once it was cooked ale dente. So that went into the boiling water and I continued to stir my tomatoes while adding half a teaspoon of oregano flakes, and half a teaspoon of turmeric a spice used quite widely in Southeast Asian cuisine. Personally I have always loved the bright yellow it would provide to foods, and if you like ball park mustard that goes with hotdogs at the baseball game, you can thank turmeric for the brightness of the yellow in that mustard.

By the time your pasta is cooked your oven should be at the desired temperature, and your cherry tomatoes will have nicely mingled with your garlic, onions and spices. I have an affinity for using cast iron cookware quite a bit, and having lightly fried my onions, garlic and tomatoes in a six inch cast iron skillet, a greater portion of it would remain in there. However, before draining my pasta and giving it a quick rinse, I opened up the can of sardines and gave them a good mashing with the tines of a fork. Upon completion, the last mentioned task came next and the vessel in which I cooked my pasta was to become something to mix a few prime ingredients in before tossing everything in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Mixing it all up for baking

After draining my pasta, I placed into the pot in which I cooked the pasta, the following: the drained pasta, the mashed sardines, one medium raw egg, and two thirds of my cooked garlic, onions and tomatoes. I gave this all a heck of a mixing to make sure everything was well distributed. I wanted to make sure all the flavour of the spices had coated every last noodle, and there was a fairly homogenous mix of the ingredients, including the egg.

Once I had this all mixed, emptied the ingredients into the six inch cast iron skillet in which everything had so carefully been blended in. On top of that I added sprinkled my flax seed and topped that off with three dollops of butter from my one tablespoon of it. The butter is there to add some flavour and also to percolate throught the flax seed and add a little bit of a crunch to your meal. Food should not only taste good, it should have texture in your mouth!

After the twenty minutes in the oven to ensure that the egg was cooked and holding all the other ingredients to the pasta, it was time for lunch.

I enjoyed in immensely. A tasty combination of many different flavours. This is something that you should never fear in experiencing. Trying new food is like trying new music. You may not like it at the beginning, but it is much better than being addicted to garbage.