After our Ethiopian extravaganza of homemade spice mixes, clarified butter and wine, we decided to keep things a little more simple for our meal from Sudan. We found a website put together by a man called Mark Tanner, who paddled 3000 miles down the Nile through Sudan, picking up some traditional recipes along the way. The problem with a lot of them, though, was that they required ingredients we weren’t sure we could get hold of, like okra powder, so we chose the one recipe that was made up of ingredients we already had in our kitchen: pasta bake. Presumably this dish is linked to the Italian invasion of Sudan in WWII, although we’re not sure about that – but it does stick out like a sore thumb against the other more ‘traditional’ recipes on the website.
Nonetheless, we thought it was a fairly safe bet for dinner. Pasta is Toddler Mash’s favourite food, Ash has a nostalgic connection to the combination of cheese and ketchup, and Miranda is sleep-deprived and nourishing humans with her body and is therefore always hungry and willing to eat anything.
Pasta bake
Ingredients
250g pasta (we used conchiglie)
100g grated cheese (we used cheddar)
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 green pepper, finely chopped
1 pinch salt
Method
1. Cook the pasta according to packet instructions and put in a baking dish.
2. Stir in the butter and add the tomato paste, green pepper and salt.
3. Put the grated cheese on top and add ketchup.
4. Grill until the top is crispy.
And what of this surefire hit? Well:
Toddler Mash tried it for once! A miracle, right? Well, kind of. ‘Tried it’ meant he ate one piece of plain pasta under duress (because he’s the only three-year-old in the world who doesn’t like ketchup) and filled up on the garlic bread we bought at the last minute in an attempt to bulk it out a bit.
Ash was thoroughly dismissive of the whole exercise, dubbing it student food and threatening to call Deliveroo. Apparently the nostalgic combination of cheese and ketchup is only nostalgic at lunchtime.
Miranda is sleep-deprived and nourishing humans with her body and is therefore always hungry and willing to eat anything – so polished off her plate and Toddler Mash’s. She really didn’t think it was that bad – not gourmet, perhaps, but what’s not to like about cheese and ketchup?
So, in conclusion, with two out of three punters not rating this dinner, it’s unlikely to grace the Mash table again.
Good Food on Bad Plates 