Ham and Pasta Bake – Austrian Style

The ham and pasta bake is a dish that reminds me of my childhood. In those days it was my granny who cooked our meals every day. She had a very old-fashioned kitchen, no electric stove and no fitted cupboards. In her kitchen one would rather find a very old wood-burning stove, which was replaced with a newer one at some time, an old sideboard, where she stored her pots and pans, her tableware and cutlery and also some groceries like flour, sugar, salt, etc. And I remember that one small part of the sideboard was reserved for the bread. The bread only, placed on a kitchen towel and a bread knife next to it. Whenever we children claimed to be hungry, she would open the little door, take out the big loaf of bread, hold it against her body and cut off a slice. Then she would get the jar with the lard from the pantry and spread the white delicacy on the bread, and sprinkled with salt and occasionally topped with some onion rings this really was regarded as a delicacy in those days.

Apart from that she also used the sideboard to hide sweet things like chocolate or biscuits. If she didn’t want us to find them she would try very hard to hide them very well, like in some pots. But after some time we knew all her secret hiding places and always found what we were looking for. She would then grant us a few biscuits or some chocolate, but never all, as she made us believe that the biscuits had to be kept for Christmas or the chocolate was needed for a special recipe.

What made my granny’s kitchen a place of comfort was the table. It was not particularly big, but there was almost always someone sitting at it. Either it was my grandpa or it was one of their friends who had called in for a short chat. Or it was just granny, sitting there, peeling potatoes or preparing some vegetables. And she would always tell us her stories.

My granny cooked every day. Mostly simple dishes, a lot of vegetables, but also meat, as my grandpa was very fond of meat. One of these simple dishes was the ham and pasta bake. She cooked two different versions of this dish, one as a bake and one just as a fry-up. And both tasted divine, particularly if served with some fresh and juicy green salad from our garden.

extract from my granny’s recipe book – ham and pasta bake, written in German

The recipe that you find in my blog is not granny’s original recipe. It is a slight variation, for example, I replaced the sour cream with ricotta and added spring onions.

This dish is very traditionally Austrian and even though it is so very old it can still kick up storms of enthusiasm. Maybe because it’s so simple and unpretentious.

But let’s move on to my recipe now.

Ham and Pasta Bake – Austrian Style

¾-1 lb (400 g) small pasta
1/3-1/2 cup (100 g) butter
3 eggs
¾-1 cups (200 g) ricotta or cream cheese
4 spring onions
2/3 lb (300 g) smoked bacon or ham (cut into tiny cubes)
½ lb (250 g) grated cheese (e.g. cheddar)
2 cloves of garlic
salt, pepper
marjoram

Preheat the oven to 180° C (160° C fan oven).

Cook the pasta in water. It should still have a firm center when you drain it (al dente).

Mix the butter and the egg yolks, then add the ricotta. Clean the spring onions and chop them very thoroughly. This is best to be done in a food processor (fast and very finely chopped). Chop the bacon or ham. Add the spring onions, bacon, 200 g of the grated cheese, the crushed garlic, salt, pepper and marjoram to the butter-eggs-ricotta-mixture and combine well. Add the drained pasta and combine well again. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the pasta-bacon-mixture. Transfer everything into a buttered ovenproof dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes. Serve with some green salad.

Here is the recipe for printing: