Baked Pasta with Bocconcini
by Steve E in User ContributedI saw Jamie Olivier make a version of this on his trip to Italy show and thought it looked great. I'm sure his is equally as tasty as this version.
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Step 1: Make tomato sauce
See Rouxbe certified recipe for exact steps to make the best sauce ever. There is a link below in chef notes.
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves diced
- 3X 28oz cans whole tomatoes
- 1X 5.5oz can tomato paste
- salt and pepper
Step 2: Cook pasta
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil then introduce the pasta and cook till Al dente. There is a link to cooking pasta below in chef notes.
- 1 16oz box favorite pasta
- salt
Step 3: Prep the cheese
Grate the mozzarella, cut up the bocconcini and rip the basil leaves into bit size pieces.
- 400 g of mozzarella
- 1 bunch basil
- 450 g of bocconcini
Step 4: Saucing the pasta
Once ready drain the pasta and put back into pot you cooked it in. Add enough sauce to mix through so it longer sticks to it's self.
- 2 cups prepared sauce
Step 5: Assembly of dish
Before you start to assemble rub the sides of the casserole dish with a bit of olive oil. Start the first layer with pasta. Then spoon in some more sauce over the pasta. scatter in the bocconcini and basil and then spread a layer of mozzarella.
- olive oil
Step 6: Layer the cheese
Repeat this process till you run out of ingredients. For this dish I was easily able to get three layers. Really grate on the Parmesan cheese for the top layer and try to cover all the basil. If you have some exposed they will brown on you. drizzle a little olive oil all over the top .Pop this dish into a 400 degree oven uncovered for about 20 to 30 minutes or until all the cheese is melted.
- pamesan cheese
- olive oil
Notes
This is a great make ahead dish that can be prepared the day before and left in the fridge thou when your making it you'll find it hard to not want to eat it right on the spot. If you choose this option you'll need to cook it longer as everything will be cold coming from the fridge, probably more like 45 minutes to an hour and maybe not quite as hot. I haven't tried it yet so this is purely speculative.
Tomato sauce recipe. http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1202/preview
How to cook pasta. http://rouxbe.com/school/sections/30
