Baked Rice Bolognese Pie

Ingredients

• 1 brown onion peeled
• 2 garlic peeled
• 160 g button mushrooms
• 1 red pepper seeds removed
• 1 carrot trimmed
• 2 celery stalks
• ¼ cup fresh parsley roughly chopped
• ¼ cup fresh basil roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 500 g lean beef mince
• ⅓ cup tomato paste (85ml)
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 3 cups brown rice cooked
• 4 eggs
• 400 ml tomato passata
• 90 g parmesan cheese grated
• sea salt and ground black pepper to serve

Preparation

1. heat oven to 180°c. if you have a food processor, then simply blitz the brown onion, garlic, mushrooms, red capsicum, carrot, celery, parsley and basil until it is minced; this will save you on chopping time. if you don’t have a food processor, then finely chop all ingredients.
2. heat a large (30cm diameter round preferably) oven-proof fry pan* on medium heat and add extra virgin olive oil to coat, followed by the veggie mince. cover and cook for 6-8 minutes to soften all the veggies. add mince, and cook a further 5-6 minutes to brown the meat. remove from heat, add tomato paste, dried oregano, and cooked rice, season with sea salt and black pepper and toss.
3. whisk eggs in a separate bowl and stir through the bolognese, then use the back of your spoon to give the top of the pie an even surface. spread tomato passata over the top of the pie and finish with grated parmesan. bake in oven for 30-40 minutes. stand for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.