Baked Rigatoni

Rigatoni is an over-sized macaroni that goes best with chunky tomato-meat sauce. The size of each rigatoni tube (1 1/4" L x 0.75" W) may be overwhelming but you can conquer it.  You may cook it the way you would an ordinary pasta dish—toss the pasta and sauce and voila! Or you may bake it.

Italian Rigatoni

My version is accidental Baked Rigatoni.   I wanted to cook it the traditional pasta way, no oven involved.  It was my first time to use rigatoni tubes in my pasta dish and I underestimated the cooking time, it was too "al dente", a little hard to the bite.  But since I already tossed in the tomato-meat sauce, I cannot separate anymore the rigatoni to further boil it.  So, I thought of a remedy, and eureka!  Bake it! And so I did.  And it turned out better than the traditional way.

Here’s the recipe.

Baked Rigatoni

Ingredients!

500 g. Rigatoni

400 g. Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes

620 g. Hunt’s Mushrooms Spaghetti Sauce

400 g. Minced Lean Pork (or beef)
250 g. sausages, julienned (cut diagonally)

200 g. Pitted green olives

100 g. Capers

4 tbsp. Pomace Olive Oil

3 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tsp. Dried Oregano

1 tsp. Dried Basil

1 tbsp. Salt

4 tbsp. Brown sugar

2 tsp. Black Pepper- ground  

MSG- optional

Shredded Cheese- optional

Cook It!

Rigatoni

Boil the rigatoni until almost al dente (approximately 3 minutes to being firm to the bite).  Drain water and set aside in a casserole.

Boiled Rigatoni

Tomato-Meat Sauce

1. In a skillet over low heat, saute chopped onion and garlic in pomace olive oil until onions are caramelized.

2. Turn the heat to medium and put in the minced lean pork and continue to sauté until meat turns brown.

3. Put in the pitted olives and the capers and sauté more for 3 minutes.

4. Pour in the diced tomatoes and stir continuously for 5 minutes under low-medium heat.

5. Pour in the mushrooms pasta sauce and continue to stir for 5 minutes under low-medium heat.  Add 4 tsp hot water if mixture gets too thick to avoid burning at the bottom.

6. Put in brown sugar, salt and pepper and stir continuously under low heat for 2 minutes.

7. Sprinkle with oregano and basil then stir continuously under low heat for another 2 minutes.

8. Lastly, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and swirl for a minute.

Mixture of minced lean pork, sausages, olives and capers smells so good when sauted 

Diced tomatoes over the sauted meat, olives and capers

The steaming tomato-meat sauce

Toss It!

1. Gradually pour the tomato-meat mixture over the rigatoni until everything is covered with the sauce.

2. Toss and mix, ensuring every rigatoni tube is coated with the tomato-meat mixture.

Put the excess tomato-meat sauce in a tightly-capped canister and store in the refrigerator for use within 3-5 days with any pasta noodle for sudden pasta cravings. 

Bake It!

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees F for 5-7 minutes.

2. In a greased 9x11 baking dish,pour the tossed rigatoni and tomato-meat dish. You may sprinkle shredded cheese on top if you want.

3. Cover the baking dish with a foil and bake for 20 minutes at 175 degrees F.

Enjoy!

Now you have a different kind of pasta dish for you and your loved ones.

Baked Rigaotni ready for the taking!

Baked Rigatoni, You’re So Beautifood!