This is another version of Ziti Al forno or baked pasta. My Mom used to make this each and every Sunday for lunch! I like to make this whenever we have a lot of Bolognese or Ragu (not the brand ragu means meat sauce in Italian) left over. Don't be intimidated by the fact that there are no amounts because there really is no set amount for each ingredient. This allows you customize the amount of cheese, sauce, or the size batch you want.
Ingredients
a large pot of Bolognese or a Ragu
4 cups of Bechamel/Balsamella sauce
Pasta with holes: penne, ziti, or rigatoni
1 cup Grated Parmesan (I use 3/4 Parmesan & 1/4 Romano)
Equipment
large lasagna pan or casserole dish
Directions
Set the oven to 350.
Cook pasta until al dente or just undercooked by 2 minutes, drain and then split between 2 bowls and add meat sauce to 1 bowl and bechamel to the other, stir well. Remove 1/2 cup of each bowls of pasta and mix together, set aside.You should now have 1 big bowl of meat pasta, 1 big bowl of bechamel pasta and 1 small bowl of both pastas mixed.
Spread olive oil all over the bottom of the pan and add 1/2 of the pasta with the meat sauce.
Now add 1/2 of the pasta with the bechamel sauce.
Finally add a layer of a little less than half the cheese.
Repeat process.
End with a topping of the pasta that you set aside and the left over cheese.
Cover and bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown. Allow it to sit out covered for 10 minutes before serving as this allow the flavors to mellow.
I made this dish as part of my Mothers 80th birthday party for about 25 people. It was such a huge hit among the crowd, many saying it was simply the best baked bolognese dish they had ever eaten. Thank you for putting up these recipes for us. I loved it so much. I will be making more of your recipes soon
ReplyDelete