Chicken & Tomato Pasta Bake

Ingredients

• 600g chicken breast mini fillets, diced
• 150ml chicken stock
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1.5 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 400g penne
• 200g mozzarella, torn
• 200g ricotta
• 50g panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 40g Parmesan, finely grated
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 15g fresh basil, torn
• Garlic bread, to serve
• Green salad, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C fan. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and salt it generously — it should taste like the sea. This is your only chance to season the pasta itself. Cook the penne for 3 minutes less than the pack time (it finishes cooking in the oven), then drain.
2. While the water comes up, season the diced chicken generously with salt and pepper and set aside. In a large ovenproof pan, warm the olive oil over medium heat and soften the onion and grated carrot for 6 to 7 minutes until sweet, slumped and just starting to catch at the edges.
3. Add the sliced garlic, tomato puree and oregano. Cook for 30 to 60 seconds, just until fragrant — burnt garlic turns the whole sauce bitter, so keep it moving and pull it off the heat the moment it smells nutty. Toasting the oregano and tomato puree in the hot oil for another minute deepens the flavour; raw tomato puree tastes tinny.
4. Pour in the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, red lentils and sugar. The stock is doing real work here — it breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of summer fruit, not heated tin, and it gives the lentils something to drink. Simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are soft and the sauce has thickened to a rich, glossy red.
5. Stir in the seasoned chicken and simmer for 8 minutes until cooked through and the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Taste, season, taste again — adjust now, not at the table. The lentils and tomato will keep wanting salt.
6. Fold the drained penne through the sauce until every piece is coated. Dot spoonfuls of ricotta across the top, then tuck the torn mozzarella between them so you get molten pockets rather than a flat cheese lid.
7. Mix the panko with the Parmesan and the remaining olive oil until the crumbs look damp and sandy — dry crumbs scorch, oiled crumbs go deep gold. Scatter evenly over the bake. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes until bubbling fiercely at the edges and the crust is deeply golden.
8. Rest for 5 minutes — straight from the oven the sauce is lava and slides off the spoon; five minutes and it sets into something you can plate. Scatter with torn basil, finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a little more grated Parmesan, and bring to the table with garlic bread and a sharp green salad alongside.