Meal for one

Saw a post on pasta frittata from Basilicata. I had changed the ingredients as well as the method of doing it. Well, I use my air fryer to baked rather than cooked in a saucepan. Google: “What does the word frittata mean? There is an Italian expression ‘hai fatto una frittata’ which more or less means you have made a mess (figuratively or literately!). Perhaps, the expression came into being when a frittata was merely a way to use up whatever leftovers were in the fridge and not actually considered a culinary delight!”

Google: “7 Foods You Should Never Cook In Your Air Fryer: Wet Batters, those beer-battered onion rings, fries, fish cutlets, plus tempura veggies and more are not well suited for a crisp in the air fryer, cheesy items, Large, Bone-In Meat Cuts, Baked Goods-not heat resistant, paper towel, Greens, Raw Rice and Other Grains, oil, and too much of anything”.

This is another way to use up your leftover dry and cooked pasta and it’s a perfect dish to add to your lunch and it works really well for a light lunch or dinner paired with a red and green salad. I am glad to try baking pasta in an air fryer even though it did advice not to use cheese. I cut down the amount of cheese. My recreated pasta from a food blogger. Her recipe link is attached at the bottom. My baked heart pasta is cute, comforting, colourful and delicious. Let’s baked pasta in an air fryer!!!

Ingredients

65-80 g cooked penne
2 eggs, beaten
1 Tbs minced garlic
3-4 slices of salami, diced
chili flakes, divide
30 g Parmesan Pecorino, divide
black pepper
oil
butter, grease
double layer foils, to prevent leakage and easy to clean air fryer

Salad

5 cherry tomatoes
4 slices cucumber
some spinach

Method

For you if you don’t have cooked pasta. Do this first, cook pasta in a pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and let it cool. In a pan heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic, diced salami, chili flakes and cook until garlic softens and diced salami is cooked about 25 seconds, not to burned garlic.

In a large metal bowl combined the cool cooked pasta with garlic mixture. Then add in beaten eggs and some cheese into the pasta garlic mixture bowl. Season with pepper. Mixed well. Grease the heart shape baking pan with butter and wrapped the outside of pan with double layer of foils. Spoon pasta garlic egg cheese mixture into the greased heart shape pan.

Remove air fryer cup and put the heart shape pan inside the air fryer cup. Put the air fryer cup back into the machine, switch on air fryer plug, set the temperature to 180 degrees C. Bake it for about 8-10 minutes. Serve with salad and sprinkles some more chili flakes on top. Enjoy!!!!

Note: You might need more or less time as different model air fryer take different temperature and time. Best bake at 8 minutes first then if cheese not melted and crispy on top add a further 2-4 minutes. You may add tomato sauce and meat. Increase the amount if you have a bigger air fryer. You can cook on saucepan as per recipe attached below.

https://helenscchin.com/2024/08/11/air-fryer-baked-pasta-with-salad-frittata/

Recipe link from: Pasta Frittata from Basilicata: https://www.the-pasta-project.com/vermicelli-pasta-frittata-basilicata/

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