Pasticcio recipe - or it's all Greek pasta bake to me

When I read other vegan blogs, I yearn for the photography skills of their authors: I like Have Cake, WIll Travel or Oh Ladycakes as much for their excellent photos as their for their excellent cakes.

But not all food can be as beautiful. I present pasticcio, the ugly duckling of the dinner world.

I apologise in advance - if I'd have known this would have turned out so good, I would have recorded the recipe properly and taken some better pictures. Still, it was darn tasty, so I thought I'd share it with you anyway - I know you're not the kind of person who judges a book by its cover and you can see beyond the wonky appearance to the sweet dish beyond.

Pasticcio, so Wikipedia tells me, is a Greek version of an Italian dish. It's sort of somewhere between lasagne and moussaka - pasta and mince topped with a bechamel sauce.

My version went a little like this: fry off a finely-chopped large shallot and three cloves of garlic then, when they're softened, add in a chopped red pepper, a couple of chopped tomatoes, two diced carrots, a bay leaf and generous handfuls of fresh oregano and thyme. When that's all softened a bit more, say five or ten minutes later, find some TVP.

Add a generous amount of the soya mince, some red wine and passata, tomato puree, red wine vinegar, and if you're so inclined, a bit of Marmite. Leave to simmer until the TVP sucks up all the liquid. If it gets too dry, add more wine, passata or vegetable stock. You want it wetter than you'd normally make it, as the pasta will soak up some of the liquid too during cooking.

In the meantime, boil some pasta - tubular types are traditional, apparently - and then drain and set to one side. Once the mince mix and pasta are both ready, combine them, and put in an ovenproof dish.

Put your oven on to 190C.

Find yourself a box of Mori Nu silken tofu and a couple of handfuls of pine nuts. Blend together til smooth, add in a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast, and a generous grating of nutmeg.

Spread the tofu mix on the mince and pasta, and bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is browned.