All baked pasta recipes, even the simplest, call for the pasta to be
rst blanched in salted boiling water (note: not cooked but just
blanched to prevent it from being overcooked), then topped with
tomato sauce or meat sauce, mozzarella cheese and homemade
béchamel, and nally baked in the oven, after being sprinkled with
Parmesan cheese. Baking allows the various ingredients to mix
well, resulting in a tasty and stringy dish that is golden on the
surface and delicious.
The base is prepared with tomato sauce or meat sauce, but there
are many variations, such as the absence of sauce, the presence of
smoked scamorza cheese, or vegetables instead of meat. Let's face
it: baked pasta is a dish designed to be personalized to the
maximum and, why not, to also use those ingredients we have in
the refrigerator and want to recycle. For example, the recipe for
pasta au gratin is a variation of the classic baked pasta without
sauce and with ingredients that can also be recycled.
One of the reasons why baked pasta is so beloved is simple: baked
pasta can be prepared in advance and put in the refrigerator and
then just (re)baked in the oven, or you can even freeze it and take it
out when needed. Not only that, because if it leftovers as days go
by (up to 3, stored in the refrigerator) it becomes even better and
tastier.
The recipe I propose is the classic baked pasta recipe; if you want
to be daring, make Neapolitan-style baked pasta by topping the
pasta with fried meatballs, scamorza cheese, Neapolitan salami,
tomato sauce and grated Parmesan cheese.
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Baked pasta recipe