Easy Green Bean Pasta Bake Questa ricetta è disponibile anche in italiano.
This easy yet yummy green bean pasta bake recipe is my family’s favourite. Learn how to make this gorgeous pasta dish at home in less than 30 minutes!
This easy yet yummy green bean pasta bake recipe is my family’s favourite.
With as little as 3 main, humble ingredients you can replicate this gorgeous pasta dish at home in less than 30 minutes.
All you need to do is literally:
– wash the green beans and remove their tips
– bake the tomatoes for a bunch of minutes
– boil the pasta and the green beans
– combine pasta and tomatoes, sprinkle some vegan parmesan and bake until it goes a little crispy on top.
That’s how this magic lunch is achieved.
So simple but full of flavours.
How to nail the Green Bean Pasta Bake
The three main ingredients for this pasta bake are indeed: tomatoes, green beans and pasta.
It comes without saying that you can personalize and tailor this basic recipe to your own taste.
Depending on the season I use fresh tomatoes 🍅(cherry work splendidly) or canned ones (chopped, passata, etc).
After preheating the oven at 180°C I arrange the tomatoes on a tray, season with oil, herbs and spices and bake until the fresh tomatoes are wrinkly and slighly charred on top and the canned ones are hot and coloured.
Then it comes to boil together the green beans and the pasta, just until they’re both half cooked as they will finish cooking in the oven while absorbing all the goodness and the flavour of the sauce.
Green beans are nowadays available all year long, although the actual time when they are in season starts from the end of April until October.
For this recipe you can use both fresh green beans and frozen ones. Based on their size and your personal taste (if you prefer having them on the crunchy side or more tender) they might require longer or shorter cooking times. I like mine quite crunchy, so for a batch of average size green beans I would usually boil them in hot water for around 10 minutes.
Finally we need to pick a pasta shape. This is literally down to you. For this recipe, I personally prefer pastas that can hold some sauce, as penne, rigatoni or conchiglie, but there’s no rule, you can use whatever shape you like or you have available.
Optional ingredients
What a pasta bake it would be without some form of cheese, right?
For this recipe I like to stay simple and I normally use only a mix of vegan parmesan and nutritional yeast, but you can really use any plant based cheese you fancy, even our gorgeous homemade Vegan Stracchino Cheese!
Then there’s the garlic. I’m a garlic lover, actually I might define myself obsessed with garlic. And since I like to taste it in my food I normally grate a few cloves and fry a few second in some hot olive oil. If you’re not a garlic fan, you can just infuse it squashed and remove it, or you can use a few granules of the dry one for a lesser intense flavour or even not use it at all. Once again it’s completely up to you.
I also like to give this pasta a bit of a kick, this is why I use a pinch (or two) of chilli flakes as well as regular black pepper that I personally use in every savoury dish I make!
Last, but not least, we can improve the taste of this humble pasta bake with some herbs.
I cannot omit fresh basil in this recipe: a fragrant touch of sweetness and freshness. Just adorable.
Sometimes I also use some parsley or oregano, depending on what I have available and on how rich I want the taste to be. Feel free to use your favourite herb mix as your personal touch to the dish, but believe me, you have to try it with just some fresh basil the first time you make it, you’ll love it!
Easy Green Bean Pasta Bake Recipe
Ingredients:
800 gr Chopped Tomatoes (or 1 kg fresh Cherry Tomatoes)
700 gr green beans
500 gr wholemeal penne
50 gr vegan parmesan-style
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
3 tbsp tomato concentrate
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp Chili Flakes (optional)
Fresh Italian Basil (6-7 Leaves)
Salt
Pepper
Method:
1. Preheat the oven at 180°C (350°F).
2. Arrange the tomatoes in a baking tray. Add the garlic (grated,chopped or squashed), season with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 15-20 mins grill mode.
3. Bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta and green beans for 5 minutes. Drain the pasta making sure to keep 2 cups of water.
4. Remove the tomatoes from the oven, add the pasta water, nutritional yeast, tomato pure and basil leaves. Combine the pasta with green beans coating it well. Spread in one layer and topped with grated parmesan-style cheese.
5. Bake for 10 extra minutes until crispy on top.
