Friday, April 23, 2010

Jaime Oliver's Baked Camembert Pasta

(picture adapted from flickr)

This was quite tasty. Very simple, and exquisite. The can be baked in its box, which I purchased at Target. The flavors can be played around with too. Don't feel like you need to commit to rigatoni, either. Use whatever pasta you like.

Ingredients
(serves 4-6)

- a box of Camembert Cheese (250g)
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, pick the leaves off the woody stalk
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
- 100g grated parmesan cheese
- 400g dried rigatoni
- 150g fresh spinach

Directions

1. Open the box of cheese and unwrap it. Place it back to the wooden container (Note: mine did not come in a wooden container so I placed it in a oven safe dish like what you see in the photo).
2. Score a circle into the top of the skin, then lift it off and discard.
3. Lay the garlic slices on top of the cheese, sprinkle some pepper and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil.
4. Scatter the rosemary leaves over the top and gently pat with your fingers to coat them in the oil.
5. Bake the cheese in a preheated oven of 180C (350F) for about 25 minutes, until golden and melted.
6. When the cheese has 10 minutes left to cook, add the pasta to the pan and cook according to packet instructions.
7. When the pasta is cooked, add the spinach to the pan – it only needs cooking for 10 seconds or so.
8. Drain the pasta and spinach to the pan and let it wilt.
9. Drizzle with a couple of good lugs of extra virgin olive oil and add the grated Parmesan. If the sauce is too thick for you, add a splash of reserved cooking water to thin out a bit. Season with salt and pepper and give it a good stir.
10. Remove the cheese from the oven. Divide the pasta between your serving bowls. Either drizzle the melted Camembert on top or pop cheese on the table and let everyone help themselves to a lovely, gooey spoonful.

2 comments:

  1. I love this dish, I do fry the slicesgarlic in the olive oil for a few minutes before putting it on the camembert, otherwise I find the garlic undercooked, you can shorten the oven time by 10 minutes that way. I fry some fine chopped spring onion with the garlic, small changes to a winner

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  2. This looks delicious! I'd use
    wholewheat pasta as we find white a bit insipid. Will definitely make it though! 😍

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