Pasta Al Forno

Pasta al forno is baked pasta. Probably the most famous is lasagne, this recipe is kind of a deconstructed lasagne inspired by the Greek baked pasta dish pasticcio. It is less time consuming than lasagne, and would be great for a dinner party with a green salad.

Serves 4

375 grams of short pasta – macaroni, elbows, rigatoni

Meat Sauce

1 bottle of passata (about 690gram or 720 ml)

1 large onion finely chopped

500 grams of minced beef

A large bunch of fresh oregano roughly chopped or a couple of teaspoons of dried

White sauce:

1 large dessertspoon of butter

1 large dessertspoon of white flour

2 bay leaves

300 - 500 mls of milk

1 large egg beaten

½ teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg

2 ½ cups of strong cheese

Salt and pepper

First make the meat sauce:

Fry the onion until soft and transparent

Add the beef and brown

Add the passata and oregano and simmer for about 2 hours

Test for salt and pepper

The sauce should be thick and with very little extra liquid.

When this sauce is ready, preheat the oven to 150 c and start on the white sauce and pasta.

Melt the butter with the flour and cook the paste for a couple of minutes.

Add the bay leaves

Dribble in the milk a little at a time, don't rush as you will get lumps

When the sauce is the consistency of single cream, cook until thick, stirring all the time.

While your sauce is thickening, cook the pasta until a little soft but still quite hard in the middle – about 4 or 5 minutes.

When the white sauce has thickened, remove from heat and leave to cool a little, add the beaten egg and nutmeg

In a large bakind dish or pan add the pasta and sprinkle half the cheese over the pasta, then add a layer of meat sauce – you may need to use all, you want to cove the pasta but not drown it.

Spread over the white sauce and the rest of the cheese,

Bake for 30 minutes until sizzling and cheese is melted.