Easy and delicious Italian pasta bake recipe for a filling family meal

Easy and delicious Italian pasta bake recipe for a filling family meal.

Pasta al forno (pasta bake) is one of my go-to dishes.

Easy to make and loved by the whole family, it has all the easy and comforting elements of a good pasta dish, yet it is a little less boring that just a plane bolognese, the baking element and the extra cheese adding to it a more interesting texture and crunch that makes it feel more like a complete meal than just a main.

This is how I make it!

Italian pasta bake Ingredients

• 400 g pasta (penne or fusilli is what I most commonly use)
• 700 g tomato passata
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
• 1 medium carrot, finely diced
• 1 celery stalk, finely diced
• 1 barley leaf
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 300 g minced meat (beef and pork mixed, or just beef. If you like the taste, lamb mince works amazing too). If you don’t have mixed mince, I find it also works well to use beef mince and then add a handful of diced ham to it
• 300 g mozzarella cheese, sliced thin or similar cheese (provoke works well)
• 100 g parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

1. Prepare the sauce

1. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, and celery. Sauté for 5–7 minutes until softened.
3. Add the minced meat and cook until browned, breaking it up with a wooden spoon.
4. Season with salt and pepper
5. Add the bay leaf
6. Optional: I like to add a 1/4 glass of red wine to add depth to the flavor. This is however optional (the alcohol will evaporate so no worries in that sense, it doesn’t make the dish alcoholic)
7. Pour in the tomato passata and stir well.
8. Reduce heat to low and let it simmer for 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning if needed. Once ready, remove the garlic (unless dissolved) and the bay leaf and discard them.

8. Preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan) / 400° F

3. Cook the pasta

1. While the sauce simmers, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water.
2. Cook it well all dente, which usually means about 3 mins before / up to half the cooking time indicated on non-Italian pasta boxes.
3. Drain and pour into the sauce straight away. Mix straight aways until well coated

3. Assemble the pasta bake

1. take an oven proof dish and drizzle a little bit of olive oil on the bottom
2. Add a layer of pasta, then lie on top of it a layer of mozzarella slices and a handful of parmesan
3. Add pasta, then mozzarella again then parmesan again
4. If you still have pasta, add one extra layer and the remaining parmesan and out in the oven.

4. Bake

1. Bake uncovered for 20–25 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling.
2. Let it rest for 5–10 minutes before serving.

5. Serve!

Top tip: the pasta bake is even more delicious served the day after, a little like it happens with lasagne!

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