Tomato Olive Rotini Casserole

The only time I had anything resembling a casserole was a Mac and cheese casserole at an American Diner back in Oklahoma. Now I had a fridge to clean up, and finish up that odd one vegetable, a cup of cheese, and I remembered Hetal's tomato corn casserole. Although I could not follow her recipe because of the lack of availability of ingredients, her dish was an inspiration. I added all the ingredients that I could lay my hands on and intuition. We loved and hogged on it. This has been a good week, first J and B's Arvi patties, then Prissy Cook's prickly pear margarita and now the casserole which made a way into the staple list. Loving it.

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 35 mins
Serves: 3-4

3 cups of Rotini pasta (7-8 oz)
2 litres of water + 1 tbsp of salt

3/4 cup of thinly sliced red onion / shallot
1 cup of quartered and sliced tomato
10 pitted black olives quartered
1 big clove of garlic grated
5 dried red chillies (you could also use about a tbsp of fresh chili flakes
2 tbsp of olive oil
2 cups of store bought marinara sauce
1/4 cup of mayonnaise (you could also use heavy cream or ricotta cheese)
1/2 tsp of dry Italian seasoning (I would have loved to use fresh herbs, basil or the likes)
salt to taste

1 cup of pre shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup of shredded Mexican blend of cheeses (It had cheddar, Monterey, Asadero, Queso Blanco)

• Boil the 2lt of water with salt and add in the pasta. Continue boiling for 10 - 11 mins.Drain the pasta and run it through cold water.
• In a saute pan heat the oil on low - med, add garlic and chili flakes saute for 10 secs
• Increase the heat t med add onions and saute for 4 mins
• Add the tomatoes, olives and cook for 4 mins
• (Start and set your oven to 350oC)
• Add in the marinara sauce and cook for another min
• Turn off the heat add the mayonnaise, mozzarella cheese and 1/2 of the Mexican cheese blend and the pasta.
• In a 2Qt baking dish, grease it with a tbsp of oil or margarine. Toss the pasta mix in there. Top it with tomato slices and few more chopped olives.
• Bake it at 350oC for 25 mins
  

Let it cool down and use a flat spoon to cut and serve. Garnishing it with fresh herbs would be wonderful.