Ricotta and basil filled paccheri pasta with homemade tomato sauce
Pasta, tomatoes and ricotta are the main ingredients in this simple but delicious Southern Italian filled paccheri recipe.
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time30 minutes mins
Total Time45 minutes mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Campania, Italian, Southern Italian
Keyword: baked pasta recipe, paccheri, ricotta, tomato sauce
Servings: 4
Calories: 547kcal
- 12-16 paccheri ridged or smooth
- 500 g tomatoes (17oz) San Marzano or Piccadilly are good tomatoes to use
- 2 garlic cloves peeled
- 300 g tomato passata (10 oz) I prefer Cirio'rustico' which is chunkier
- 3-4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- peperoncino flakes as required
- salt for pasta and to taste
- black pepper to taste
For filling
- 400 g fresh ricotta (14oz)
- 1 handful basil leaves
- 50 g Parmigiano Reggiano or grana (2oz) grated
Make tomato sauce
Peel the garlic. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water and peel them. Cut into smaller pieces.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan or skillet. Add the garlic cloves. When they start to soften add the chopped tomatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes soften then add the passata and peperoncino (if using).
Stir and simmer on a medium heat for about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and remove the garlic when the sauce is ready.
Make the filling
While the sauce is cooking, make the filling. Put the ricotta in a bowl with most of the basil torn into pieces (don’t use a metal knife on basil as it will turn brown) Mash the ricotta with a fork or use a hand held blender until the ricotta is quite creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste.
If your ricotta seems to have a lot of liquid, drain it through a muslin or cotton cloth before making the filling.
Finish the dish
Cook the paccheri al dente and drain. Run some cold water over the pasta to stop it cooking further and to make it easier to fill. Spread some of the tomato sauce over the bottom of an oven dish.
Use a teaspoon or piping bag to fill each pasta tube. Then place the paccheri side by side in the oven dish on the tomato sauce.
Once you have filled all the paccheri, sprinkle with some grated parmigiano and bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 until the ricotta and parmigiano start to melt. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with more of the tomato sauce.
To save time you can make this recipe with a ready-made tomato sauce. However, I think homemade is always worth the bit of extra time it takes.
This recipe can be made with other pasta tubes such as rigatoni but they aren't as big as paccheri and are more difficult to fill.
Calories: 547kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 60mg | Sodium: 315mg | Potassium: 857mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 1993IU | Vitamin C: 26mg | Calcium: 395mg | Iron: 3mg