Macaroni party in a pot

One of my favourite Youtube chefs, Steve at Vivaldi’s, had a video where he showed off a macaroni dish he claimed had great results with kids. I liked the concept and decided to try it. He was right. My two boys loved it. It’s easy to prepare, doesn’t leave a lot of dishes, and compared to a lot of other options they enjoy, it’s quite healthy.

Here we go:

Ingredients

This will serve two grown-ups and two minions.

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• ~300g macaroni

• 200g minced meat

• Half cup of parmesan or equivalent dry cheese

• 1 can (3 dl?) of passata (tomato sauce, no pulp)

• Salt, pepper and oil for cooking

• Bread with real butter as a side

• Salad for the grown-ups as a side

Process

1. Start by chopping the onion and put it in a heated pot with a bit of oil.
2. Fry the onion for a minute or two, then add the meat.
3. Cook until 2/3 done, then add the tomato sauce. For the end result, you’ll cook the macaroni in this pot directly.
4. Add the shredded cheese and make sure it creates some thickness to the sauce. At the same time, there must be enough liquid here to cook pasta.
5. Add the macaroni and let it cook according to the packaging, 6-9 minutes I guess.
6. Taste as you go - Serve with high-quality bread and a salad.

Not your typical food blog pictures

As you might have guessed, this is not a ’try to impress’ looking dish you’d serve on a date night for adults. The target audience is mainly happy kids who are so well fed they don’t ask for sweets or cereal before bed. That’s why I’ll post the best proof of concept image instead of a glossy one. Mission accomplished!

Appendix

Here is the original video from Vivaldi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGALPHqsqTM&t=14s