Ziti al forno con polpette (oven pasta with meatballs)
Oven pasta is a very popular dish in Italy, especially during winter. This version of oven pasta comes traditionally from a region in the south of Italy called Puglia.
Ingredients
500 g ziti; if you can’t find it, go for rigatoni
200 g mozzarella, sliced in cubes
50 g pecorino or parmesan cheese
800 g tomato sauce
1 big onion, very finely chopped
4 to 6 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of salt
1 tablespoon of black pepper
250 g minced meat
50 g pecorino or parmesan cheese
1 clove of garlic, very finely chopped
1 handful of parsley, very finely chopped
2 tablespoon of bread crumble
1 egg (medium)
1 little red chili pepper, very finely chopped and without the seeds
2 tablespoons of salt
1 tablespoon of black pepper
a splash of red wine
Method
Start with the sauce
Make a “soffritto”, typically onion cooked in a pan with olive oil until golden
Add the tomato sauce with some spices to flavor it (salt, pepper, parsley, basilicum and a bit of red wine if you like) and cook it on low fire for about 30 minutes
Prepare the meatballs
Pre-heat the oven at 175 C / 350 F
Mix all the ingredients together and make small meatballs, the size of a nut
Put them in an oven pan and in the oven for 20 minutes
Turn them around and continue cooking for other 10 minutes
Put everything together
Boil some water in a pan, adding a bit of salt, and cook the pasta half-way through (about 4 minutes – it will continue cooking when in the oven)
Drain the pasta and add to it a bit of tomato sauce so that it won’t stick
Put together all the ingredients in an oven pan with high edges, one layer at the time like you’d do with lasagna: start with the pasta, then cover it up with the tomato sauce, the meatballs and the cheeses; then again another layer until you have finished the ingredients; the very last layer should be covered on tomato sauce and parmesan cheese finely grated)
Cover all up with aluminum foil and put the pan in the center of the oven at 175 C / 350 F, for 25 minutes
Get rid of the foil and continue cooking for other 10 – 15 minutes (or until the cheese has formed a nice and gold-ish crust)
Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes