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Baked Pasta Apricot Pudding

Last night I cooked too much pasta (mostly large elbows, but some penne too). The reason being that we have a moth infestation in our pantry, which we’re slowly combating. The moths lay eggs on the outside of flour bags, etc and the grubs eat through the bags, then gorge on the contents, finally spinning a cocoon and thus spoiling whatever was in the bag. Thus, when I noticed a grub on the outside of a packet of pasta elbows, I had to check if the pasta was ruined. I submerged the bag in water and alas bubbled surfaced and the bag took in water. I emptied the packet into the sink and thoroughly washed the pasta. There was no evidence of grub infestation, but now all the pasta (500g) was wet and thus needed to be cooked.

I’ve frozen a dinners worth of pasta in a bag, but that still left about 180g (pre-cooked weight) of pasta left. It occurred to me that I could use this cooked pasta to make a dessert, since it’s made of semolina, and semolina makes a good pudding, it was worth a shot. The result was a delightfully sweet pudding, offset by the slight tartness of the apricots, and best of all, it’s incredibly easy to make.

!/recipes/images/BakedPastaApricotPudding.jpg!

h2. Ingredients.

* 180 g (pre-cooked weight) of cooked pasta
* 40 g of butter
* 120 g of castor sugar
* 3 eggs
* 250 g of Ricotta
* one 800 g tin of apricots

h2. Method.

Drain the tinned apricots for about half an hour to ensure they are completely drained.

Cream the sugar and butter in a food processor.

Add the eggs, and process until well mixed.
Add the Ricotta and mix again.

Place the pasta in a casserole dish and arrange the apricot halves, cut side down, over the pasta. Now pour the batter over the top and gently shake the dish to encourage the batter to run down into the pasta.

Bake covered at 150C for 1 hour, then test the centre. If it’s still runny in the centre, increase the heat to 175C and remove the lid. Bake for a further 15 minutes.

Serve warm.

posted to Australian,Dessert,Recipes @ 8:02 pm

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  • At 9:56 pm on 16 April, 2006, The Old Foodie commented:

    one way to avoid the moth problem is to put anything moth-attracting in the freezer for a couple of days then take it out, thaw it out, and then put it in your pantry as normal. The freezing kills the moth eggs apparently. It helped me get rid of them a few years ago. I dont freeze everything now, but i do believe it helped at the time.

  • At 11:15 pm on 16 April, 2006, David commented:

    Thanks for the tip. I’d not thought of that, but then freezer space is a premium at the moment (and a 10kg bag of flour wouldn’t fit).

    However, I’ve now taken to using thick plastic containers to store packets of dried goods in, until I can make new rubber seals for the pretty glass jars Mum gave me.

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