Baked pasta doesn’t even have to try to be a cozy, comforting dish. There’s already the bubbling sauce, the gooey cheese, the sweet smell of pasta wafting through the house. But here’s the truth: A few bites of that rich warmth can lull you to sleep. (And why do that when there’s more pasta to eat?) So the next time you’re making a baked pasta, incorporate one of these upgrades, which will keep things interesting — but not too interesting.
Add Meatballs
Finding a meatball in your baked pasta is much like finding a nugget of cookie dough in your ice cream: It adds surprise, something to dig around for and break up similar bites. While you could form and sear off homemade meatballs, Colu Henry has a smart trick in her baked ziti recipe below: rolling uncased sausage into meatballs instead.
Add Greens
Like lemon in a cream sauce or a side salad with a steak, greens in a baked pasta can cut richness. You’ll want to cook the greens to get rid of some of their water before they head into the oven, to avoid making your pasta runny. So blanch hardier vegetables like broccoli or kale in the last few minutes of the pasta boiling, as in the baked Alfredo pasta recipe below, or wilt tender greens like baby spinach or arugula into the warm sauce.
Really Undercook the Pasta
Pasta can’t help but drink up a delicious sauce. As it bakes, it gorges until itap way more than full. So if the pasta goes into the oven already soft, it will swell until itap mushy. The easy solution is to undercook the pasta knowing it will feast on more sauce later: Go for two minutes less than the al dente timing listed on the package.
Crisp Onions on Top
There’s nothing wrong with topping a baked pasta with breadcrumbs, but you’ve had that before. Nuts, crackers, bits of prosciutto or bacon are all possibilities — as are the onions you already have on hand for the sauce. For her baked skillet pasta with cheddar and spiced onions recipe below, Melissa Clark sets some of the caramelized onions aside to arrange on top of the pasta. As it bakes, the onions crisp and curl with the cheddar.
Expand Your Cheese Choices
When picking a cheese — or cheeses — consider how they’ll behave in the oven. The classic mix might be mozzarella, Parmesan and ricotta, but the options don’t stop there. Fontina, cheddar and gruyère are good melting cheeses. Cottage, cream or goat cheese can go creamy, and feta and grated halloumi provides a salty kick. Choosing your mozzarella wisely can also make an impact: Because it has less water, low-moisture mozzarella has an easier time browning and melting.
Bake It Hotter and Faster
Many recipes instruct you to bake the pasta covered for a long stint, then uncover the pasta to brown the top. But all that time away from your watchful eye can cause it to dry out or turn to mush. For more control over the result, bake the pasta at a higher temperature (around 450 degrees) for a shorter amount of time (10 to 15 minutes). Thatap just enough time and heat for the elements to meld, the cheeses to melt and the top to brown.
Let It Rest
Itap understandable to want to dig into baked pasta the second itap ready. But spoon it onto your plate, and it’ll run like lava — a molten-hot slip and slide. By letting the pasta rest for 10 minutes, the structure of the pasta will set. The sauce will cling to the noodles, the cheese will stay put, and the temperature will lower so you don’t scorch your tongue.
Recipe: Baked Skillet Pasta With Cheddar and Spiced Onions
In this warming skillet pasta bake, onions — sautéed with cumin, coriander and allspice until golden and aromatic — do double duty. They form the base of the tomato sauce thatap used to coat the pasta, and are mixed with grated cheddar for the topping, where strands of onions mingle with the melted, gooey cheese. Itap satisfying and easy, with the pasta baked in the same skillet as the sauce. Serve it as a meatless main course with a crisp salad alongside, or as a rich side to a lighter chicken or fish dish.
By Melissa Clark
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Total time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 large onions, thinly sliced
- 1 large bay leaf
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Pinch of cayenne, plus more to taste
- 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt, plus more as needed
- 3 fat garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 (15-ounce) can whole peeled plum tomatoes
- 1 pound small pasta, such as rotini or shells
- 3/4 cup chopped parsley or cilantro (or use a combination of cilantro and parsley), plus more for serving
- 8 ounces shredded cheddar
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- Hot sauce, for serving (optional)
Preparation:
1. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a 12-inch skillet over high heat. Add onions and bay leaf and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and browned in spots, 12 to 20 minutes. (Reduce heat if the pan starts to scorch.) Lower heat to medium and stir in coriander, ground cumin, cayenne and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook 1 more minute. Transfer half the onions to a bowl and reserve (leave the bay leaf in the skillet).
2. Add garlic, cumin seeds, pepper and allspice to the skillet and stir. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in the juice from the canned tomatoes. Use your hands or kitchen scissors to squish or cut the tomatoes into pieces and add to pan. Fill the empty tomato can with water and pour into the skillet. Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil and remaining 1 teaspoon salt and bring mixture to a simmer. Simmer until thickened, about 20 minutes. Taste, and add more salt and cayenne if you like. Remove bay leaf.
3. As mixture cooks, heat oven to 400 degrees and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until just about 2 minutes shy of al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water and drain pasta.
4. Stir pasta, reserved pasta water and parsley into skillet with tomato sauce. Top with reserved browned onions, cheddar and Parmesan. Transfer to oven and bake until golden and bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes. If you like, you can run the pan under the broil to brown the top, or leave it as-is. Let cool slightly; top with more parsley, if desired; and serve with hot sauce, if you like.
Recipe: Baked Alfredo Pasta With Broccoli Rabe and Lemon
One of the great things about baked pastas is that you can get two different textures in one dish. Take the typical pasta Alfredo thatap prepared in a skillet: Itap delightfully creamy and lush, but the same, bite after bite. But add a green vegetable to that Alfredo pasta, pile it into a dish, top it with melty cheese and a crunchy breadcrumbs, then bake it, and you get a vegetarian dinner thatap got it all. If broccoli rabe isn’t your thing, you can substitute cut asparagus or broccoli florets.
By Ali Slagle
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Total time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- Kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 cups finely grated Parmesan
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- Black pepper
- 1 pound casarecce, cavatappi or other small tubed or curly pasta
- 1 bunch broccoli rabe, trimmed, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 small garlic clove, grated
- 6 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Preparation:
1. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Place the butter in a 9-by-13-inch/3-quart pan or baking dish and transfer it to the oven to melt while the oven heats; remove it from the oven once itap melted.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the panko, 1/4 cup Parmesan and the lemon zest. Add 1 tablespoon of the melted butter from the baking pan, stir until the panko is moistened with butter, then season with salt and pepper.
3. When the water’s boiling, add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 2 minutes less than the package instructions suggest. During the last minute of cooking, add the broccoli rabe. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, then drain the pasta and broccoli rabe.
4. Whisk the cream, garlic and pasta water into the melted butter in the baking dish until smooth. Add the remaining Parmesan in large handfuls, vigorously whisking until smooth and combined. Add the pasta, broccoli rabe and half the mozzarella. Taste, and season well with salt and pepper. Stir until very combined.
5. Top with the remaining mozzarella, then sprinkle evenly with the panko mixture. Bake until the mozzarella has melted and the panko is golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
Recipe: Baked Ziti With Sausage Meatballs and Spinach
Baked ziti is meant to feed a crowd, and this one surely does. “Cheater” meatballs made with uncased Italian sausage are strewn throughout the sauce for heft, and baby spinach lends a pop of color. Because ricotta has a tendency to dry out when baked, creme fraiche is added to ensure a more velvety texture, but sour cream thinned out with a little heavy cream works just as well. The whole dish can be assembled and baked ahead the day before. Bring it to room temperature before warming, then broil right before serving for crisp edges.
By Colu Henry
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Total time: 1 3/4 hours
Ingredients:
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage (pork, turkey or chicken), casing removed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
- 2 (28-ounce) cans whole San Marzano tomatoes with their juices
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 1 pound ziti, penne or other short, tubular pasta
- 1 (15-ounce) container ricotta
- 7 ounces creme fraiche (about 1 scant cup)
- 1 cup grated pecorino
- 3/4 pound fresh mozzarella, cut or torn into 1/2-inch pieces
Preparation:
1. Using your hands, shape the sausage into about 35 (1-inch) meatballs.
2. In a deep 12-inch skillet or a Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium. Working in two batches, fry the meatballs until golden all over, about 2 minutes per side, then transfer to a paper towel-lined sheet pan or platter. Cook the onion until softened, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano and red-pepper flakes, if using, and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 2 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes and their juices to the skillet, gently crushing them. Stir in the meatballs, bring to a simmer and cook, 20 minutes. Gently fold in the spinach, tossing until it wilts. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook until 2 to 3 minutes short of al dente (it will finish cooking in the oven). Drain pasta.
5. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, creme fraiche and half the pecorino. Season with salt and pepper. Stir half the meatball sauce into the ricotta mixture. Add pasta and toss together to coat. Pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish thatap at least 2 1/2 inches deep. Top with the remaining meatball sauce, the mozzarella and the remaining pecorino. Place uncovered baking dish on a sheet tray and bake until the cheese is melty and bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Turn heat to broil and cook until the cheese and pasta brown in spots, 1 to 2 minutes. (Don’t walk away; the cheese can burn very quickly!) Remove from oven and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
This article originally appeared in .
