So my wife and I started cooking for a group here in town that does meals for those going through Chemotherapy a couple of times a month, and my wife's favorite dish I cook is this baked rigatoni. Since I cooked it last night, I thought I would share. I wish I could recall where I got it, I've just been cooking it so long that I know it off the top of my head. Either way, hopefully you guys and gals will enjoy it as much as we do.
Baked Rigatoni
Ingredients:
Italian Sausage (I use the deer variety, as I have lots but any kind will work, I also don't like using the casings, so I remove them and ball them up, YMMV)
A medium eggplant, cubed into 1/2 inch squares
Medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic diced or crushed + rough chopped
1lb of Rigatoni
1 cup of Chicken Stock, or 1 cup of
red wine
2 cans diced tomatoes (12oz)
1 can tomato sauce (12oz)
1 can tomatoe paste (little one - 4oz?)
Italian seasoning (oregano, parsley, basil, tarragon)
2 or 3 bay leaves
White or red wine vinegar to taste
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper
1lb of whole mozzarella, cut into 1 inch cubes
Handful of some sort of hard italian cheese (assiago, parmesian)
Olive oil
I tend to cook by taste so some of this may be off or to your liking. The bulk of the ingrediants are for the red sauce, as I tend to make mine from scratch, takes more time, but for me its more enjoyable and in the end cheaper. If you prefer (or just don't f'ing feel like it) I suppose you could use some canned variety, though I have never done that. I've also never written this down, so hopfully I'll recall everything.
First put your water on to boil (salted of course) for the rigatoni. You can substitute penne or some other hollow pasta if you can't find rigatoni, just something that will hold the sauce. Also preheat your oven to 375.
Next in a large saute pan (not non-stick), heat about a table spoon of the oil. Once shimmering/heated drop in your chopped or balled up sausage and brown until done. This will leave lots of brown goodness and grease on the bottom of the pan. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Next, add the chopped eggplant. This will soak up all the grease. Cook until slighty brown and soft. Remove and set aside.
Building your red sauce. If you use a canned variety or have your own recipe, this is where you do that in the same pan using the sauce to deglase the pan. For me I build mine like this:
Add the onion and a touch of salt and sweat the onion until translucent.
Add the garlic next. cook for about a minute or two.
Add the stock or wine (depends what I have around which I choose). Use this to deglase the pan (getting the brown bits off the bottom of the pan). Should disolved the bits until the bottom of the pan is all but clean.
Add the cans of tomatoes, sauce, paste and stir thouroghly.
Add the Italian seasonings, red pepper flakes(to taste) and bay leaves. In the end mine tends to work out to almost a 2oz ramiken's worth.
Simmer for about 5 or 10 minutes.
Add vinegar to taste. Sometimes it takes a little, sometimes a little more. mine tends to be approx 2 tablespoons.
Don't salt or pepper until just before mixing with other ingredients, as the sauce will reduce a bit, and sometimes it doesn't need any at all depending on the sausage you used.
While the sauce flavors are "blending" over a low simmer, put the pasta on the hopefully boiling water. Stir once to make sure it doesn't clump up, and then cook until just al dente, or still a wee bit underdone - there's more cooking to do. Mine tends to go about 8 minutes give or take.
Now, from here strain the pasta, put back in the pasta pot, add the sausage and eggplant. Taste your sauce, it should be about done by now, if not, you can simmer it a bit more. REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE BAY LEAVES. If you ever bite into one, you will not forget again
Once the sauce is done add that to the pot as well. Take 3/4 of the mozzarella you cut up and put that into the pot as well. Take about half a handful of the assisago/parm and dump that in too. Mix well, trying to get everything as evenly distributed as possible.
Pour all into a glass baking/cassarole dish. DO NOT PRESS DOWN, let it settle on its own. You may have too much to fit, as I sometimes do, I just put the rest into a smaller dish.
Bake for about 25 minutes, depending on your oven.
At this point it is edible, however, I like it to be super cheezey, so I add the rest of the mozz now in random places. The baked stuff tends to have melted into the sauce at this point and tastey yes, doesn't have that gooey, cheesiness I dig. Also sprinkle the remaining parm/assiago over the top.
Bake for about 15-20 min more.
At this point the top should have a nice brown and bubbley look to it. Let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes to cool, then serve!
Much like Pialla, it's the brown crusty/crunchy pasta I like, but much like brownies, there should be ebough crust and soft cheesy goodness to go around.
Everyone I cook this for loves it, hopefully you guys will too. Definately comfort food. I tend to have beer (Peroni just because) with it, but a good Shiraz/Sirah, maybe a Saintsbury Pinot goes well with it. And we have a good italian loaf with it, but garlic bread goes good with ti too. And like lasagna and spagetti, it's always better the second day. Yum.
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