Baked pasta, the ideal dish for the holidays

There baked pasta is the first dish of the party. In particular in my house, since I am from Puglia, the baked orecchiette. Baked pasta is a very rich first course, it can be considered a single dish. It is a convenient dish, because it can be prepared well in advance and then reheated. It usually gets better the next day, I prepare it first and then serve it in terrines single after passing it in the oven. Each area of Italy has its own tradition for the preparation of baked pasta. There are those who put the hard-boiled egg, who the mortadella, who the scamorza, who the béchamel and who does not. I make it as simple as possible because it is already a dish full of her. For the shape of the pasta, you can use the one you like best.

Ingredients for 6 people

Fresh orecchiette: 500 g
Cooked ham: 100 g
Grated Parmesan: 50 g
Grated Pecorino: 50 g
Bechamel: 500 ml
Mozzarella: 2
Mixed pork-bovine mince: 500 g
Grated Pecorino: 50 g
Grated Parmesan: 50 g
Eggs: 2
Parsley: to taste
Salt to taste
Pepper as needed
Tomato puree: 750 ml
Onion: 1
Extra virgin olive oil: to taste
Salt to taste

Preparation: 60 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
Total: 80 minutes
Calories: 524 kcal / portion

Preparation

The first thing to prepare is the orecchiette but, if you don’t know how to make them, you can buy them already made in any supermarket, preferably fresh.

Let’s proceed with preparing the meatballs to put in the oven-baked pasta. Put in a bowl: ground, grated cheese, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.

Mix well until you get a homogeneous mixture and with a teaspoon take the dough and form small meatballs with your hands.

Fry them in boiling oil, drain on a sheet of paper and set aside.

Let’s move on to the preparation of the sauce. Put a drizzle of oil in a saucepan and then add the onion.

When the onion is golden, add the tomato puree.

Meanwhile, prepare the mozzarella. I recommend that you pass it through a potato masher, in this way it blends better with the other ingredients.

After boiling the water for the pasta, add the salt and pasta. Pasta, especially if fresh, should cook for no more than five minutes.

After preparing all the main ingredients. Now we are preparing to transfer everything to the pan.

Start by wetting the bottom with one or two ladles of sauce, then add the pasta, mozzarella, ham and grated cheese.

Repeat the previous operation, in order to create another layer, and add the meatballs.

I usually mix the béchamel with the sauce, so that it is evenly distributed.

Cover everything with the sauce, cover with aluminum foil and bake at 180 ° C in a static oven. After 15 minutes remove the aluminum foil and brown for 5 minutes. Let it rest for ten minutes before serving.

Tips and Suggestions

If the baked pasta is left over, you can also freeze it, as long as you have used ingredients that have not been defrosted. You can replace mozzarella with scamorza or other cheeses that you particularly like. The insertion of the meatballs is optional: in some regions of Italy a leaner and simpler sauce is used. Baked pasta also has variations in white, i.e. without the use of tomato sauce. You can prepare it with béchamel and mushrooms, or with courgettes or with a pumpkin sauce to which you will add diced ricotta and crumbled sausage. Always with the Pumpkin the combination of porcini mushrooms and mozzarella is also good. In short, baked pasta offers you an infinite number of possibilities to satisfy all tastes!