I was in desperate need of some comfort food today. I was craving for carbs. I woke up in a bit of a down mood because of a dream last night. So tell me, what is better than pasta when you are craving for carbs?

 

 

I bought the book Thug Kitchen almost a year ago from a second hand shop but I never tried any of the recipes. It was silently sitting in my bookshelf when I remembered it finally. I was just about the cook the spaghetti I have at home in a very humble way with a simple tomato sauce when I saw that there is a baked spaghetti recipe in the book! So I changed a bit of the measurements and added a few things and ate a nice slice of the final product – then shared the rest with a friend.

 

 

 

The recipe calls for lots of ingredients and I even added some more. But all these ingredients only make it richer, not harder. Seriously, you just cook the pasta according to package instructions and the rest is a bit of chopping and mixing. In the end you just throw into the oven and you’re done!

 

This recipe is vegan and you can do it both vegan and gluten free if you use gluten free spaghetti instead of regular one. There are very delicious gluten free spaghetti options out there. You can also do it with bucatini pasta (the spaghetti-like pasta which look like a long pipe).

 

 

Aside from dry pasta, you can make this recipe with fresh pasta as well, however, in many cases, fresh pasta will consist of eggs and it will not be vegan. But if you are not following a vegan diet, this will not be a problem for you.

 

 

As you cut and eat it, the spaghetti cake will get a bit messy. This is because there isn’t really a big, binding ingredient like eggs in it. But messiness is fine, because what matters is the taste and it’s fantastic!

 

Hope you enjoy this new fast and easy recipe! Cheers!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty:  ★☆☆ (Easy)
(serves 6-8, baked in a 26cm spring-form pan)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

1 can (400 gr) artichoke hearts in brine, drained
1 can or carton (500 gr) tomato sauce (I used one with basil in it)
1 medium size onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1.25 dl (or 1/2 cup) nutritional yeast*
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
400 gr spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions
1 zucchini, grated
1 big carrot, grated
a handful of fresh basil, finely chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
1.25 dl (or 1/2 cup) breadcrumbs

 

vegetable oil or vegan butter to grease the pan

 

*You can find nutritional yeast in Ruohonjuuri.

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 225C. Grease a 26cm spring-form pan and cover the base with a baking paper.

 

2. Put the first 8 ingredients in the list above into a food processor and process until you get a sauce with small pieces (but not necessarily very smooth one).

 

 

 

3. Put the cooked spaghetti in a big bowl. Add grated zucchini and carrot and mix well. Don’t be shy to get your hands in there if they refuse to get mixed otherwise!

 

 

 

 

4. Add basil and olive oil and mix again.

 

 

 

 

5. Add the sauce and mix until everything is coated with it.

 

 

 

6. Add breadcrumbs and mix well again.

 

 

7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Smoothen the surface with a spatula. Put it in the oven, in medium rack and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the surface starts to get browned and crispy. When it is ready, take out of the oven and let it cool for about 20-30 minutes, then take it out of the pan. Enjoy!