I have to admit, my cooking lately consisted in most part of some quick sandwiches, and during Easter mostly of peeling and cutting vegetables, so well, nothing really worth bragging about. If you’re in the same situation, I’d shake hands with you! It’s all good and there is a lot of variation, but at some point it is nice to eat something warm, even if you had a nice lunch earlier the day. So here is my tip for a two day meal. The beauty of this dish is the fact that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, it’s simple, and you can use up some left over vegetables laying in the fridge, in case you have any. I also decided to create a new category for the future: Two day meal recipe. Because it can come in handy.

Preparation time: 20min                     Cook time: 30min

To serve 4:

1 roll (day old) or 2 tbps of bread crumbs

1-2 sprigs of marjoram, or 1 tsp of dried

500g minced meat

1 tsp mustard

1 egg

400g carrots

1 leek

300g pasta

1 onion

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

400ml milk

200ml vegetable stock

a pinch of nutmeg

100g grated cheese

Peel the carrots, wash the leek and cut both in rings. Cook the pasta in accordance to the packaging. 2 min before the end of the cook time add the vegetables to the water. Drain everything and put aside.

In the meantime, soak the roll in water until soft, then sqeeze well. Pluck the marjoram leaves and chop. Mix the minced meat, the sqeezed roll (or bread crumbs), mustard, egg and marjoram. Season with salt and pepper and form the meat into small balls.

Preheat the oven to 190º (375F) Peel the onion and chop finely. Melt the butter in a pan and saute the onion in it until golden brown. Stir in the flour and cook together for about a minute. Slowly add the milk and the vegetable stock, stirring slowly, and bring to the boil. Season the Béchamel sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Fill a casserole dish with cooked pasta, vegetables, and with raw meat balls. Pour the sauce over and sprinkle everything with the cheese. Bake in the oven for 30min.