sprinklefingers

one of my all-time favorite cookbooks is jamie’s italy.
and my favorite recipe from that book is probably the simplest.

my husband calls it ‘baked pasta’ but that phrase has so many negative grade school cafeteria/high school graduation party connotations for me that i always make sure to correct him (with a disgusted look on my face) by telling him that it’s actually pasta al forno (which literally translates to pasta from the oven, which i guess does technically mean it’s baked pasta, but whatever. i’m in charge here, i can call it what i want.)

continuing on, this is comfort food at it’s best for me - a sort of deconstructed lasagne with fresh flavors of basil and the richness of fresh mozzarella.

this pasta al forno features a tomato-based sauce that is easily made ahead. and if you make the sauce ahead, all you have to do to prep dinner is boil the water for noodles, assemble and bake the pasta al forno - PERFECT for weeknights when you actually leave work at 4pm only to be sitting on the road in traffic until after 5:30 (which is literally what happened to me every single night of this past week.)

and, if you want to enlist the help of your freezer with this, you could EASILY make a few batches of the sauce way ahead and then any time the mood for pasta al forno strikes you simply thaw the sauce, assemble and bake.

but wait! there’s more! if you’re super efficient and trying to stock the freezer say, for the arrival of a baby, then this is perfect. follow the directions to prep the sauce and assemble the pasta - then wrap well in a double layer of foil and freeze! when you’re ready for pasta al forno simply bake from frozen and enjoy. seriously, magic.

pasta al forno
recipe: jamie oliver with my edits
serves 6

first up, my changes: in the original recipe jamie calls for 14 oz of dried pasta. i always use a full package (16 oz) instead. to make up for the extra noodles, i usually make a quarter more sauce and use a tad more cheese. below you’ll see exactly how i do it. if you’re curious about the original recipe, invest in the book (which is a great book to have!)

jamie oliver has an interesting way of writing recipes. he uses phrases such as ‘small glass of water’, ‘big handful’, and ‘a few glugs’, often. i like this approach - what starts out as guess work quickly becomes the ability to make good kitchen decisions.

you need:

• good quality olive oil
• 1 extra large or 1 small yellow onions, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (use only 2 or 3 cloves if yours are large)
• 1 or 2 dried red chilies, crumbled (if you like it spicy, use both chilies)
• 2 28oz cans best quality whole plum tomatoes
• 2 handfuls fresh basil leaves
• 16 oz dried pasta - i’ve used orecchiette and many tube pastas
• 4 big fistfulls freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 lb (or a tiny bit more) fresh mozzarella, sliced 1/4” thick
• salt & pepper
• red wine vinegar

to make the sauce:

1. heat 2 or 3 tablespooons of olive oil in a sauce pot. add the onion, garlic and chilies. let cook for 10-15 minutes over medium-low heat, watching carefully that you are simply cooking the mixture, not browning it.
2. add the entire contents of your cans of tomatoes to the mix. in addition to the tomatoes, add 8 oz of water.
3. leaving the tomatoes whole, let the sauce cook for 25-30 minutes.
4. using either your traditional blender or an immersion blender, blend the sauce so that there are no large chunks of tomatoes and you see no pieces of onion floating around.
5. tear all of the basil leaves into the sauce and season with salt, pepper and a few dashes of red wine vinegar.
6. at this point you can proceed with the recipe or simply pack the sauce away for later use.

to make the pasta al forno:

1. preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. coat a 9x13 baking dish with olive oil.
3. boil some water to cook your pasta - follow the package instructions, but cook the noodles by a minute or so less than instructed. you want the noodles to be a littlebit undercooked so that they’ll finish up in the oven.
4. once the noodles have finished cooking, drain them then mix them with HALF of the sauce and a big handful of parmesan cheese.
5. spread some pasta on the bottom of the prepared pan.
6. top the pasta with a few ladles of sauce.
7. top the sauce with a handful of parmesan.
8. top the parmesan with 6-8 slices of mozzarella. 
9. repeat the layering until you’ve used all your ingredients, making sure to end with a good layer of cheese on top.
10. bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is golden and the whole dish is bubbly.
11. let sit for 8-10 minutes before serving.
12. for service, top with additional parmesan cheese and some freshly torn basil leaves.

i think it’s important that i tell you this:
last night we had this for dinner. when my husband walked into the kitchen and saw it sitting on the counter he said, “is that what i think it is? baked pasta! i’m so excited!”

i responded to him with no words. just a look which (hopefully) was enough to make him never say ‘baked pasta’ again. ouch.