Pasta 'ncasciata

Baked pasta lined with fried aubergine and turned out whole to be cut in wedges.

Pork, Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, caciocavallo whose rennet the source does not name, pecorino whose rennet the source does not name, pork.

Ingredients

• 2 aubergines, sliced lengthways
• 500 g anelletti or short tubes
• 600 g passata
• 300 g minced beef
• 150 g salami, diced
• 250 g caciocavallo, diced
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
• 60 g pecorino, grated
• 1 onion, chopped
• 700 ml sunflower oil, for frying, which is poured off
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Salt the aubergine slices 30 minutes, dry them, and fry them in the sunflower oil until gold. Drain on a rack.
2. Make a ragu: onion in the olive oil, the beef browned, then the passata, 45 minutes.
3. Boil the pasta for two thirds of its time and mix it with most of the ragu, the salami and half the caciocavallo.
4. LINE AN OILED ROUND DISH WITH THE FRIED AUBERGINE SLICES, overlapping, with the ends hanging over the rim.
5. Fill with half the pasta, lay in the egg slices and the rest of the caciocavallo, then the remaining pasta. Press it down firmly, then FOLD THE OVERHANGING AUBERGINE OVER THE TOP to close it.
6. Scatter pecorino and bake at 190C for 40 minutes.
7. REST IT 20 MINUTES, THEN TURN IT OUT UPSIDE DOWN ONTO A PLATE. It comes out as a purple-sided drum and is cut in wedges — served in the dish with a spoon it is just a baked pasta. Pour the frying oil off once cooled.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes