Pasta al Forno

Pasta al forno is my all time favorite comfort food. It has everything you could ever want. Pasta, cheese, meat…oh my! The best part is broiling the top for a few minutes at the end and then fighting over who is going to get the crunchy corner piece!

Ingredients

2 pounds of ziti pasta (or penne)

1lb of ground veal, pork and beef

2 cans of 28oz whole peeled tomatoes

3-4 cloves of garlic minced

1 teaspoon of rosemary

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

splash of red wine

salt to taste

1 mozzarella

2 tablespoons grated parmigiano

Directions

In a large pot, add oil, rosemary and minced garlic. Let cook for 2-3 minutes

Next, add your ground meat mixture and break it up with a wooden spoon. Add a splash of red wine and let cook on medium flame until wine cooks out and the ground meat begins to brown

Add your tomatoes to a blender and puree and then add to the pot with the meat

Turn the flame to low and allow to cook for 30-40 minutes

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil

Cook your pasta for half of the time on the box and drain

Cut your mozzarella up into small pieces and add to a food processor and pulse until crumbled or you can grate the whole mozzarella on a box grater

Preheat the oven to 375F

Coat the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan with sauce and then add all your pasta in

Toss in half of the crumbled mozzarella and add the remainder of the sauce

Mix until all of the pasta is coated in sauce and the mozzarella is well distributed throughout

Add the rest of the mozzarella on top and grate some parmigiano on top

Bake for 30-35 minutes

Let rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting