Pasta al forno (baked pasta the Italian way)

Sicilian baked pasta al forno tortiglioni

4.92 from 23 votes

Pasta al forno (baked pasta the Italian way)

This recipe is based on my Sicilian mother-in-law's version of pasta al forno. It's rich and tasty and perfect for when you have a large number to feed!

Prep Time30

Cook Time1 30

Total Time2

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian, Sicilian, Southern Italian

Keyword: baked pasta recipe, pasta al forno, pasta bake

Servings:

Calories: 1064kcal

Author: Jacqui

Ingredients

For the meat ragu

500 g minced beef and pork mix or veal
½ glass white wine
100 g peas
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 medium sized onion
1-2 garlic cloves (optional) garlic isn't always used in ragu. But you can add it if you like it.
extra virgin olive oil
1 handful basil leaves or parsley chopped
2 tablespoon tomato concentrate
500 ml tomato pulp or passata
salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta al forno

400 g tortiglioni or other pasta tubes (better ridged like rigatoni)
300 g caciocavallo or mozzarella cut into pieces
50 g parmesan

Instructions

First the meat ragu

Chop the carrot, onion, garlic and celery finely.
Fry the vegetables in olive oil until they are softening. Be careful not to allow them to burn!
Add the minced meat and cook until browned.
Then add the tomato concentrate and stir well
Add the glass of wine and stir well again
When the wine has evaporated pour in the tomato pulp and mix it in well with the meat.
Add the basil leaves and salt and pepper as required.
Cover the sauce and allow to simmer on a low heat for at least an hour, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick. If it gets too thick add some water.
15 minutes before the sauce is ready add the peas.

Second prepare the pasta

Put salted water on to boil for the pasta. Cook the pasta 2-3 minutes less than instructed on the packet. Strain and add the pasta to the meat sauce when it is ready.
Mix the pasta and sauce well and allow to cool.

Third put the pasta al forno together and bake.

Put a layer of pasta with sauce on the bottom of an oven dish.
Make another layer with thick pieces of mozzarella.
Add another layer of pasta with meat sauce and again some mozzarella
Finish with a layer of pasta.
Sprinkle with parmesan and bake in a pre-heated oven 180-200° until the top layer starts to crisp (30-40 mins)

Notes

Any tube pasta can be used to make this pasta bake e.g. penne, rigatoni, maccheroni, elicoidali etc
Instead of caciocavallo or mozzarella you can also use scamorza or provola
instead of grated parmesan, pecorino or grana are delicious too!
This dish can be prepared in advance up to the point of baking it. Keep it in the fridge and bake just before serving.

Nutrition