Preparing pasta as the focus for family meals is core to our family’s heritage. My grandmother rolled her own dough, cut raviolis and made a red sauce to die for. Mom learned at her side, skipped the dough making, but made a mean red sauce too. And all the female relatives passed on their techniques to me which I dutifully recorded. When I have the luxury of a free Saturday afternoon, I do all those things too for nostalgia’s sake but I’ve come to relish taking shortcuts such as making pasta as a baked casserole rather than as sauce-drenched noodles. These allow for so much creativity in the ingredients and pairings, plus these dishes are easier to portion out as take-home gifts or in goodie boxes for friends and neighbors. Think roasted asparagus spears, sautéed mushrooms or braised sausages.
Last weekend I was cooking for the grandkids. Now that they have children of their own, it can be a challenge to satisfy everyone so I chose such a pasta dish as our main course, streamlined of course to their tastes. I gave myself permission to go simple after reading about the “Food for Thought” cookbook in the book “Miss Cecily’s Recipes for Exceptional Ladies”, the current selection in our Cook the Books reading group.
In the book, protagonist Kate Parker encounters feisty old Cecily Finn at a nursing home and learns about her enormous book collection especially cookbooks. One of those was the Food for Thought book that Kate inherits at the conclusion of the novel. The novel recounts the journey two women took together toward friendship and the lessons Cecily taught Kate. Food and recipes play a key role throughout the book as it draws readers into the tale.
I especially enjoyed the excerpts from the Food for Thought book such as “A cookbook should be equally at home on the kitchen shelf as the bedside table. This cookbook was written not for those heroic housewives who, having produced a cordon bleu dinner for twenty, emerge from their kitchens triumphant. I address, rather, the more easily dismayed to whom a gastronomic occasion is a challenge and a dilemma.”
This passage spurred thoughts of what I could make for the kids and was a great lead-in for a simple dinner of roasted asparagus and a pasta casserole laden with mushrooms. As it turned out, they enjoyed the meal so much that they all took “to go” bags home with them. Yea for grandma! Hope you enjoy too.
This is my contribution of the current cycle of Cook the Books, hosted this time by the wonderful Deb of Kahakai Kitchen http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/ . In making this selection she said she hoped it would provide some fun inspiration in the kitchen, and indeed it did. I can’t wait to see what others in the group were inspired to prepare. Meanwhile, here’s to pasta!
Cheesy Baked Pasta Casserole
Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ tsp hot pepper flakes or to taste
1 tsp dried basil
½ tsp salt
1 lb fresh mushrooms, your choice, diced
1 jar prepared pasta sauce, flavor to your liking
5 or 6 Italian meatballs, precooked with their sauce
1 box dried pasta, farfalle, rotelli or your choice
8 oz fresh mozzarella, shredded
8 oz mixed Italian cheeses, shredded
6 oz whole-milk ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup unsalted butter cut into chunks
Preparation:
Cook pasta in boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and drain. Set aside drained pasta. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and butter a 9-12 baking dish. Set aside.
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil till golden, adding seasonings near the end. Saute mushrooms and season similarly.
Cut meatballs into tiny pieces and add to other ingredients. Combine all ingredients including the pasta. Add cheeses, reserving enough mozzarella to sprinkle atop the dish for baking. Add pasta sauce, adding additional reserved liquid if not a loose enough sauce.
Add all ingredients to prepared baking dish and sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese atop. Cover with aluminum foil. Dish can be refrigerated at this point for a day. If doing so, bring dish up to room temperature before baking. Dot top with chunks of butter. Bake 25-30 minutes or till golden and bubbling. Let cool slightly before serving.
