A quick, easy and cheap meal.

When growing up at home in New Zealand, I was lucky that mum made some fancy meals for the family when she had time. Often dad would get crayfish or scallops from local fishermen friends of his in exchange for fish he caught. Meant we ate like kings on the best available. Other times, mum relied on a bunch of staple recipes she could call on when she was a little time poor or needed to economise. This is one of them. Even today this recipe for sunkofleky is a firm family favourite.  My youngest daughter, in particular, is really fond of this meal and often seeks out seconds and thirds.

Šunkofleky or Sunkofleky (this is the Czech name for this dish – pronounced Shoon-ko-flecky) is a pasta bake with only three key ingredients – ham, eggs and pasta. Great if you have leftover ham from Christmas, or managed to score some cheap from your local deli. This is so simple and quick to make means more time spent with the family and less in the kitchen. Bonus!

This dish is wonderful to have hot from the oven, or served cold as leftovers for lunches and picnics. I’m even planning to include this in my daughter’s school lunches too. The best thing is this is a great dish to make when you want to save a few dollars. Serve it with a leafy salad and you’ll have a firm family favourite here! I learnt this from mum and hope one day my two girls pass on the tradition with this meal. I’m sure they will as this is firmly on our dinner rotate.

Šunkofleky

I haven't yet met a person who hasn't enjoyed this family friendly meal (exception are vegetarians of course!). It's simple to put together with only a few key ingredients. You can have sunkofleky put together in no time to serve for your next family meal.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Servings 6 serves

Ingredients

 

• 500 g packet of penne or spiral pasta
• 8 Eggs
• 300-400 g ham, solid piece or thick ham slices/steaks
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup cheese, grated (optional)
• salt
• black pepper

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
• Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packaging.
• Chop the ham into very small cubes. Add olive oil to a frying pan and fry ham until lightly caramelised.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with milk. Add the ham, pasta (once cooked), and salt & pepper to season. While the pasta is still hot, add the butter and mix all ingredients together.
• Pour the pasta into a greased baking dish or tray and if needed, use a spoon to evenly distribute the ham pieces throughout the pasta. Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and egg cooked all the way through.

Notes

• This bakes well with or without the added cheese on top (see photo below without cheese).
• Serve this with a leafy green salad.
• The traditional way to serve this meal is with a side of pickled cucumbers.