Just thought I would add my two cents in on pasta forno (pasta bakes) and pasta sauces.
Being Italian I can't go more than a couple days without pasta.
There are heaps of quick sauces out there that you can make but I love the long slow cooked ones.
Bolognese Sauce
Olive oil, enough to cover at least 1cm of the pot, 2cm even, heaps.
Half quantities of beef and pork mince about 500g
Onion, diced
Garlic, if you like it, I add about 6 odd cloves, I like it
salt, pepper
Passata, couple bottles
Water if needed
Just warm the oil in the pot, add the onion and garlic, cook them really slowly, don't let them brown, keep them transparent. I cook them for about 20 mins sometimes less if I am pressed for time.
Add the minces, fry til brown, but not over too high a heat.
Add your passata and salt. pepper to taste.
Simmer for at least a couple hours, the longer you cook the, the better it tastes. If it's getting to thick and dry just top up with water.
Serve with parmasen and as Bear said not the pre grated crap. I won't tell you what I call it as it's crass and I'll probably offend someone.
Growing up we used grana padana on pastas, we would have been shot if we put the good parmasen on it, That was strictly after the meal, mind you it was the awesome Reggiano.
If you haven't tried it BUY IT, expensive but you will never go back to pre grated!
As for pasta bake
I use that sauce, with some cooked pasta, al dente, a couple eggs and some pecorino, or mozarella or parmasen, or all three.
Bake it for about half an hour on 200. It's awesome and lasts for ages.
if you make a heap of the sauce you can freeze it and use it to make a quick pasta bake, I do that sometimes.
ETA If you are PG be careful with the Italian cheeses as most of them use unpasturised milk. I'm dying for some good parmasen right now!!
Last edited by ll80; August 13th, 2008 at 01:46 PM.
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