Name: Courgette and black olive pasta gratin
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 bowls
Ingredients: 250 g pasta (penne or rigatoni); 30 g pine nuts; 40 g shallots; 40 g spring onions; 500 g small courgettes; 250 g cherry tomatoes; 30 g pitted black olives; 5 tbsp olive oil; 2 cloves garlic; 1 sprig rosemary; 1 sprig thyme; 1 pinch sea salt and black pepper; 1 pinch sugar; 50 g vegetarian parmesan

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As regular readers will know, I’ve recently been sent a Bosch Serie 8 single oven to test at home and share my experiences with a set of weekly posts.

Last week, I took an overview of the most exciting features the oven has to offer, and this week, I’m focussing on a key question: how does the Serie 8 help support hassle-free family cooking?

Cooking for the family can cover a wide range of occasions; from weekday meals and leisurely weekend gatherings, to special occasions when there’s a houseful and the dining table is piled with celebratory dishes.

In our house, mealtimes are very much an opportunity to spend some quality time together, enjoying each other’s company along with good, healthy food, but cooking for the family isn’t always a breeze. The demands of work, after-school activities and the general running of family life can sometimes make putting a balanced meal on the table a challenge. At times like these, anything that takes the hassle out of family cooking is a lifesaver.

I find that planning the week’s meals in advance can really help when time is tight, meaning we always know what we’re going to eat and there are much fewer last minute dashes to the supermarket. Meal planning also helps us stick to healthy dishes rather than reaching for the processed or takeaway options, which is always a good thing.

And of course, technology can be hugely helpful when cooking for the family. From shouting out for meal ideas on Twitter to ordering groceries online, I love a techy shortcut and the Bosch Serie 8 does not disappoint. In fact, it’s designed to make your time in the kitchen as pleasant as possible, delivering perfect results with minimal effort.

That’s a pretty bold promise, I know, but it’s realised in no small part by BoschAssist, an impressive built-in program that takes all the guesswork out of finding the optimum oven settings to help you get great results every time. It literally does the thinking for you.

Imagine, for example, you’ve had a fun pizza-making session with the kids, and they’re desperate to eat them. You now need to work out what temperature to set the oven, how long to cook them for, and what shelf to put them on. I tend to either go with my gut in times like this, or jump on to Google and see what temp and timing similar recipes call for, or I wing it and hover by the oven until the food looks done. Not a terrible approach, but not hugely efficient.

With BoschAssist, you just navigate through the touchscreen control panel to your chosen dish, and the oven then recommends the ideal heating mode, shelf level, temperature and cooking time. All you have to do is put the dish in the oven and press ‘Start’. It’s brilliant and I still can’t quite believe how easy it is. Honestly, we had a guy in re-tiling this week and I called him over to the oven just to see it in action!

BoschAssist is also supported by the free Serie 8 companion app, HomeConnect which allows you to control the oven via your phone or tablet. In addition, the app offers tips and video guides on how to use the ovens key functions, takes you through how to expertly master various cooking skills, and there’s event a wide range of recipes to inspire your family cooking.

To show you the BoschAssist function in action, I chose a vegetable packed pasta bake, with a cheesy golden topping from the HomeConnect App. Here’s how to make courgette and black olive pasta gratin.

Here’s how I got on.

Ingredients

250 g (9 oz) pasta, penne or rigatoni
30 g (1 oz) pine nuts
40 g (1.5 oz) shallots
40 g (1.5 oz) spring onions
500 g (17.5 oz) small courgettes
250 g (9 oz) cherry tomatoes
30 g (1 oz) pitted black olives
5 tbsp olive oil
2 small garlic cloves
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme
Sea salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
A little sugar
50 g (2 oz) Vegetarian parmesan

Directions

Bring plenty of salted water to the boil and cook unto the pasta is almost ‘al dente’. Pour into a sieve and catch 200ml (6.76floz) of the water used to cook the pasta. Rinse the pasta with cold water. Place the water and the reserved water to one side.

Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in a frying pan without oil, remove and place to one side.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic cloves and herbs and sweat them, then remove once they’ve flavoured the oil.

Peel and finely dice the shallots. Wash the spring onions and cut into fine rings. wash, trim and halve the courgettes lengthwise (my courgettes were large so I cut them into sixths). Cut into thin slices lengthwise using a potato peeler. Add to the pan.

Sweat briefly. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.

Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Chop the olives finely. Add them to the pan, along with the toasted pine nuts.

Add the pasta and reserved cooking water, stir together and season to taste.

If transferring to a new oven dish, grease the dish first, then fill with the pasta mixture. Finely grate the parmesan and scatter over the top.

Bake at 210C/410F for 20-25 minutes.

It’s ready when it’s golden and bubbling on top. This was so easy to make and a HUGE hit with my brood.

Now of course, this being the Bosch Serie 8, I didn’t have to set the temperature or timing myself. To use the BoschAssist function, I just selected Assist from the menu, then the category of food (I went for “Bakes and soufflés”) and then the specific dish (in this case “Fresh lasagne” seemed the closest choice). It’s really quick and easy to navigate.

The Serie 8 oven then selects the optimum heating mode, temperature and cooking time, and even recommends which shelf you should use. Just press Start and let the oven take over, while you get on with enjoying family time.

But there’s more. When cooking a recipe from the HomeConnect app, there’s an even more convenient way to set the oven: you just click ‘send adjustment values’ inside the recipe directions and all of the settings (timing, temp, type of heating and even whether steam is required) magically appear on the oven display, ready for you to pop in your dish and press Start!

I really don’t think it could be any easier.

Having always had to adapt recipes to suit my own oven’s settings, I’m finding the Serie 8 BoschAssist function a bit of a revelation. This is technology at its best; simple to use, really effective, time-saving, and ultimately helping me to produce great food.

It takes the guesswork out of cooking and baking, so you can have fun building up your repertoire of recipes and dishes, with perfect cooking results first time.

Do you think BoschAssist could help you with hassle-free family cooking?

Here’s the courgette and black olive pasta gratin recipe in printable format!

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