pasta

baked pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella

servings
4

method

This pasta dish is loved all over Italy. It is eaten by families at gatherings or celebrations and is also something the monks I visited at the Abbazia di Farfa, just outside Rome, have every Sunday as a special lunch. I’m pleased to say my faith in this dish has been restored, as I did fall out of love with it (as a result of trying to cook it in schools on a tight budget, using the cheapest pasta in the world). When I was in Altamura, in Puglia, I visited a school where they were eating baked pasta for their school lunch, bizarrely enough! However, Italian government laws state that the schools must use organic pasta and extra virgin olive oil, and they also had freshly made mozzarella! When made properly like this, it’s absolutely delicious. This was the recipe that was made for 1,000 kids at the school I visited and it was very, very good.

Preheat your oven to 400ºF and put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Heat a couple of lugs of extra virgin olive oil in an appropriately sized pan. Add your onion, garlic and chili and slowly fry for about 10 minutes on a medium to low heat until softened but without any color. If you’re using fresh tomatoes, remove the core with the tip of a small knife, plunge them into the boiling water for about 40 seconds until their skin starts to come away, then remove with a slotted spoon or sieve and remove the pan from the heat.

Put the tomatoes into a bowl and run cold water over them, then slide the skins off, squeeze out the seeds, and roughly chop. Add your fresh or canned tomatoes to the onion and garlic, with a small glass of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. Now put them through a food processor or blender to make a loose sauce. Tear your basil leaves into the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt, pepper and a little swig of red wine vinegar.

When the sauce tastes perfect, bring the water back to the boil. Add the orecchiette to the water and cook according to the packet instructions, then drain and toss with half of the tomato sauce and a handful of Parmesan. Get yourself an appropriately sized baking pan or earthenware dish and rub it with a little olive oil. Layer a little pasta in the pan, followed by some tomato sauce, a handful of grated Parmesan and 1 sliced-up mozzarella ball, then repeat these layers until you’ve used all the ingredients, ending with a good layer of cheese on top. Pop it into the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden, crisp and bubbling. Italians seem happy to eat this dish at room temperature or quite cold, but I prefer to eat mine hot.

ingredients

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 or 2 dried red chilies, crumbled
• 3 ½ lb• ripe tomatoes or 3 14-oz• cans of good-quality plum tomatoes
• a large handful of fresh basil leaves
• optional: 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 14 oz• dried orecchiette
• 4 big handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 5-oz balls of mozzarella

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tried this recipe or a similar one? share your tips...

1. by Jenny on Wed 16 May 2012 @ 12:39

So good! It tasted just like the orecchiette I had in Italy! I preferred it served cold.

2. by Tony Toronto on Tue 17 Apr 2012 @ 18:56

Almost like mom makes! The southern Italy recipe includes mini meatballs (pre-pan-fried) and if you wish, a few fresh slices of mortadella in some of the layers. Give it a shot, when you have a bit more time to prepare. Yum!

3. by Lucie on Wed 11 Apr 2012 @ 09:10

I love this recipe. I make it at least once a month. I put only a half the mozzarella and it still tastes great.

4. by Deb on Tue 10 Apr 2012 @ 16:02

Eu fiz....simplesmente perfeito...Saudações do Brasil!!

5. by Col on Sat 03 Mar 2012 @ 19:39

So it takes over 30 minutes to preheat the oven?anlogyv Second

6. by Darkwarrior on Tue 28 Feb 2012 @ 22:20

I made this and it was or is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guessed most of the ingredients and used passatta with a few toms, and two real red chillies an it was hot HOT!!!!!!!!!! so it all depends on what your ingredients are actually like / fresh / hot or whatever sooooo you canna blame poor old J O for that can ye ! FANTASTICAL!!!!!!!! NICE TOO

7. by Caztastrophe on Thu 26 Jan 2012 @ 04:18

What a cracking recipe! I/m allergic to garlic so replaced it with and extra onion and good sprinkle of dried oregan. It is delicious cold too especially when it's 42oC as it is today is Perth! Greetings from Oz Jamie, Love your work!

8. by nat on Mon 26 Dec 2011 @ 21:24

I love this recipe and my family too. Greetings from Costa Rica

9. by Lala on Sat 10 Dec 2011 @ 17:42

Allles auf deutsch bitte :)

10. by Dario on Fri 25 Nov 2011 @ 22:55

Jamie, why the orecchiette. In theory you can use any sort of pasta and some make it with tagliatelle, but here in Abruzzo we only use short pasta, pennette or rigatoni, though pennette are the best. I'm not too keen on the addition of bechamel as some have suggested (even though I love bechamel).

11. by Michael on Wed 16 Nov 2011 @ 02:39

Thanks Jamie! I'll make this for my wife tomorrow. Since buying your Food Revolution book, I've made about 8 dishes and we love all of them! Your recipes are so easy and delicious. As for the conversion comments...Seriously???

12. by halo1074 on Mon 14 Nov 2011 @ 17:44

Do you think this recipe can be frozen?

13. by Tommo on Thu 20 Oct 2011 @ 13:42

YUMMY.ONE OF THE WORST PASTAS EVER

14. by Super~D~M~F~Hell on Tue 04 Oct 2011 @ 17:27

14 ounces of pasta seems very generous for 4 people, should be lots of leftovers!

15. by Claire on Thu 25 Aug 2011 @ 22:12

Stop whinging about the measurements. I'm British, 34 and therefore born post conversion from imperial to metric but still think in imperial as do most Brits. It isn't an American thing! If you are technologically minded enough to use the Internet you should be quite capable of converting!

16. by billy on Mon 01 Aug 2011 @ 13:55

What a stupid argument about weights and measures its only in the past twenty years or that Britain adopted the metric system. I am chef who was trained in Scotland and was taught in pounds and ounce not grams and kilograms. As long as the recipe works that is the main thing

17. by Andy on Wed 20 Jul 2011 @ 17:23

Thanks Jamie an absolute winner with all the family and I love the exact measurements for the cheese . Cheers mate and keep all the good work as it must be a hard slog to alter everyone's perceptions about good food

18. by SASKIA on Sat 09 Jul 2011 @ 09:31

My version is layers of tomato sce, macaroni and bechamel/cheese sauce. Top with crushed weet bix/vita brits and thin slices of butter. We call it CRUNCHY MAC.

19. by mary on Wed 06 Jul 2011 @ 16:22

Most Italians used plain tomato sauce and add other ingredients to the mix - I like bits of fried aubergine and chopped egg and I use smoked cheese instead of mozzarella

20. by Kerry Kirkby on Mon 23 May 2011 @ 18:48

Just made this for me and my hubby. Was very easy to make and quite tasty. Could do with maybe some extra chillies next time to give it an extra zing and maybe some bacon!!!!! mmmmmmmmm

21. by Maria Elena on Wed 18 May 2011 @ 22:54

In my complete ignorance, I thought British used the "non-metric measures" too...maybe my English book in middle school was too old =) . Just an info: to esily convert measures just google something like "3 oz in grams" and look at the first answer. I am from Italy but I often read English-written recipe, and I have problems only with cups to grams conversion 'cause the ratio is not so precise as in oz/grams. By the way, great recipe as always...I like to read the Italian recipes "Jamie's Way".

22. by londonmom1 on Wed 18 May 2011 @ 17:00

making this for family now. So far, so yum! With serve with baked fish after pasta course. And a glass of Rioja for mommy. http://thelondonmom1.blogspot.com/

23. by londonmom1 on Wed 18 May 2011 @ 16:58

making it for family now. will bake some fish to serve with after pasta. So far, so yum. http://thelondonmom1.blogspot.com/

24. by Mike Hummel on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 16:11

I can't believe you bunch of whiners. Do you guys need help tying your shoes too? I'm old and lived through the Canadian metric conversion just fine, thank you. Jamie is trying to share what he does best. Great recipes with simple, fresh ingredients. I never find the quantities given work out to my taste, so you'll need to adjust anyway. Okay, I do admit the politically correct thing would be to give both units of measure.

25. by Nomnomnom on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 14:02

It is a shame not to use the standard, modern, logical measurements. Maintaining imperial is way more ignorant. But I do wish I'd gone to school in Italy, sounds like their system has the right idea! May have to go and source some really decent mozzarella for this now and hope my scales have an imperial conversion!

26. by Jason on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 11:53

The recipe looks amazingly simple and delicious, plus it combines all of my fav ingredients, toms, basil, garlic, chilli, moze and olive oil! Who cares what measurement he gives, its not rocket science to convert. Some people are missing the point of this recipe ....

27. by Millie on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 11:22

J Bax and johnB you are obviously too young and a wee bit ignorant darlings. I bet you measure things in centimeters and meters instead of inches and feet too!

28. by dinah on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 11:16

Thanks Jamie, I will try this. It sounds and looks yummy! As an 'old timer' in the UK, I still think in imperial, so the measurements make sense to me ;)

29. by Nicola on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 11:13

Easy print option doesn't work. Only got half the recipie :0(

30. by Hayley on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 11:11

Who uses ounces anyway?! Metric ftw. Delicious sounding recipe though!

31. by Ian on Tue 17 May 2011 @ 11:09

You're on the internet J Bax and johnB - it's not hard to convert!!

32. by johnB on Sat 14 May 2011 @ 18:13

Maybe the American market is all that interests you these days, but it would be polite to either give quantities in grams as well as ounces - or to include a link for ounces to grams conversion instead of the opposite.

33. by J Bax on Sat 14 May 2011 @ 18:07

It is really annoying that you give the quantities for this recipe in ounces and the 'convert' link is for converting grams into ounces! What are you thinking of? We're not all Americans, you know!

34. by Hollie on Fri 06 May 2011 @ 17:15

This is one of my favorites. Super cheesy and yummy. I made this for a group of friends before going out for the night. It was a cold winter day and it was just what we all needed. Makes enough for a crowd.

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