Pasta al forno with tomatoes and mozzarella
Posted: 29 January '10 by Niall
Pasta al forno
Pasta al forno means “pasta from the oven” and is a popular dish in Italy.
The method for making Pasta al forno is fairly simple and similar to those for lasange but you’ll see that it is much easier to make and needs far less cooking time.
This recipe for making this Pasta al Form con Pomodorino e Mozzarella is taken from “Jamie Oliver’s Italy” – although his was made with “orecchiette” pasta (“little ears”), we found this type fairly difficult to come by at last minutes’ notice, so we made ours with “conchiglie”, which resemble small sea-shells.
There’s a real rustic feel to this dish and it’s surprising hearty. I think it’s important to get the best mozzarella that you can lay your hands on – the “Taste the Difference” mozza that we tried was worth the extra cost and was a tasty, chewy treat amongst the tomato and pasta.
We served ours with a small rocket salad and home-made garlic bread made with ciabatta – delicious!
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 500g of conchiglie pasta
- 8 fresh, large pomodorino tomatoes
- Some tomato puree
- 3 balls of mozzarella, sliced
- A wedge of parmesan, grated
- A handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper for taste
You also need a large bowl and a kettle full of hot water.
Method
- Cook the conchiglie in a large saucepan of salted water and drain thoroughly when done.
- Place a large saucepan over a low heat, add some olive oil, and add the garlic and onions, sweating them until they are soft and translucent.
- Half-fill the large bowl with the boiling water and add the tomatoes for a couple of minutes.
- Remove the tomatoes one at a time and run a finger firmly down the flesh – you should notice that the skin peels away easily. Remove all of the skin and set the tomatoes aside.
- When all of the tomatoes have been peeled squeeze them into the onion and garlic mixture, adding the soft flesh but disgarding the woody core.
- Reduce the tomato mixture and fully soften the tomato pieces.
- Squeeze some tomato puree into the tomato mixture and stir thoroughly.
- Add salt, pepper and fresh basil and remove from the heat.
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Empty the sauce into the drained pasta and mix thoroughly.
- Place some of the pasta into a casserole dish to form a layer of pasta that reaches half-way up the sides.
- Take some of your mozzarella and lay them on top of the pasta to form another layer.
- Place the rest of the pasta on top of this again.
- Complete the dish by laying the remaining mozzarella on top of the pasta, grating a good amount of parmesan on top of this again, and drizzling the top with good olive oil.
- Place the casserole dish in the oven and cook until the top has formed a golden crust.
- Once you’ve spooned out the portions grate a little more parmesan over the top (can you ever have enough?) and drizzle with olive oil.
Enjoy!
Tags: italian food, jamie oliver, pasta, recipe, vegetarian
Categories: Recipes
This dish is really very tasty! It is very nice cold also! Give it a go, you’ll love it!!
I think the only way to improve on this dish is to make sure that you accompany it with a glass of red wine :)