Rigatoni al Forno

5 from 12 votes

This Rigatoni al Forno recipe (baked rigatoni) is an Italian comfort food staple. A perfectly seasoned tomato-based sauce with baked pasta. It's perfect.

Prep Time15

Cook Time45

Total Time1

Course: Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: baked rigatoni, rigatoni al forno

Servings:

Calories: 870kcal

Author: Erich Boenzli

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced (1 tablespoon)
One 28 ounce can of whole San Marzano plum tomatoes
3 ounces tomato paste
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
4 ounces Pecorino Romano, grated
8 ounces rigatoni
¼ cup pasta water
½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Heat 2 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet.
Add the ground beef. With a wooden spoon, break apart any clumps. Season with ½ teaspoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper.
After browning the ground beef for about 5 minutes over medium heat, add the chopped onions and mix. Cook for another 5 minutes, until the ground beef has nicely browned and the onions become translucent.
Add the minced garlic for just a minute.
Add the whole can of plum tomatoes (including any juices) and 3 ounces of tomato paste. Bring to a simmer. Stir regularly and use tongs to help break apart the plum tomatoes.
In between stirring the sauce, finely grate 4 ounces of Pecorino Romano and cut 8 ounces of mozzarella into ½“ cubes.
Keep simmering and stirring the pot — smell, taste. Be careful with the salt. If it tastes just slightly under-salted, that’s perfect. The salty Pecorino Romano will close that gap when added before baking.
In the meantime, bring a pot of salted water to boil, add 8 oz rigatoni, and cook. Before draining the pasta, scoop out ¼ cup of the pasta water and add to the sauce.
Now we’re ready to put everything together and finish cooking in the oven. If you made the sauce in an oven-safe skillet, add the grated Pecorino Romano cheese and the cooked pasta. Mix well. Top with cubed mozzarella and in the oven it goes. Bake for 30 minutes. Otherwise, transfer the sauce to a baking dish, mix everything as above, and bake.
Once it’s ready to serve, remove from the oven and start heaping it on plates. Garnish with some roughly chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley.

Notes

Cheese: I highly recommend not using pre-shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese comes with additives and preservatives that prevent the cheese from getting hard. Unfortunately, they also prevent the cheese from melting smoothly.

Vegetarian: Instead of using meat, use eggplant or mushrooms. If you want to enjoy a basic pasta al forno, leave the meat out, and add more mozzarella and a whole bunch of roughly chopped fresh basil.

Reheating: Oven-baked dishes should be reheated in the oven, not in the microwave. Reheat in the toaster oven for 10 minutes at 300°F. Just like lasagne al forno or rigatoni al forno, anything al forno tastes better the second day. Or the third.

Nutrition