Baked Pasta - Pasta al Forno - Italian Baked Pasta Recipes

Lasagna is as regional as everything else in Italian cooking; if you ask for it in Emilia Romagna or Tuscany, this is what you'll get: pasta smothered with Bolognese sauce, béchamel sauce, and lots of grated cheese. In short, classic winter comfort food.

Yet another way to prepare for the arrival of Lent is Lasagne alla Ricotta; this recipe, from Jeanne Caròla Francesconi's La Cucina Napoletana, is a transcription taken in turn from a spectacular compendium Cavalcanti, Duca di Buonvicino, assembled in the 1850s.

If you order lasagne in a restaurant in Tuscany you will be served something along these lines. Making lasagne completely from scratch is time consuming because you have to make the meat sauce; however, if you have about two cups of frozen sugo alla bolognese on hand, it only takes about an hour.

Lasagna is a huge and varied universe. This lasagna with mozzarella recipe is easy, quick to put together, and also quick to cook if you use sheets of lasagna that need not be preboiled.

Baked pasta is a universe, and though Lasagna is what comes to mind first, there are a great many other options. Artichokes, for example, work very well with a creamy cheese sauce, and when baked with pasta yield an extremely tasty dish.

Lasagna is a terrifically varied universe, and though most lasagna recipes are either tomato or meat based, there are many other options. Liguria's Lasagna al pesto comes immediately to mind, but this lasagna with radicchio in which the bitterness of the radicchio balances the creamy sweetness of the cheeses, is quite nice.

Crespelle, as one might guess, is the Italian word for crepes, and they go back a very long ways. They also look beautiful, and are quite easy to make, once you have the hang of it, and are therefore the sort of thing that people will think you have gone to great deal more effort to make than you have. In short, the perfect beginning to a Sunday dinner or holiday meal, or something to serve company.

Baked Bucatini Sformato, or Sformato di Bucatini al Forno: This is actually a timballo, and is drawn from Cavalcanti, the great 19th century Neapolitan gastronome. Rich food fit for a feast.

These lasagne are a Neapolitan specialty, a spectacular sendoff before the privations of Lent. Time was every family had its variation, and the poor saved for months to make it.

Lasagna with Ricotta, or Lasagne Con la Ricotta: When I was growing up, I was always rather taken back by the ricotta that I found in lasagna in the US -- there wasn't any in what I had in Tuscany. This is because putting ricotta in lasagna is southern tradition that reaches its apex with the glorious Neapolitan Lasagne con la Ricotta that are made for Carnival...

This is a fairly rich dish suited to the period from fall to spring. It's standard north Italian of the hearty sort one might expect in a good pizzeria.

Lasagna is an almost infinitely variable dish, and though you might think of lasagna with ricotta and tomato, or lasagna with white sauce and a ground meat sauce as the standard (the former is more southern, and the latter central-northern), there are many other possibilities, ranging from with pesto sauce through with walnuts and cheese.

Fusilli look like well-threaded screws, and are perfect for absorbing a sauce, especially one with cheese. Though more of a spring/fall dish, it will also work nicely in the summer, especially if served with a crisp, fruity white wine.

This is one of the Marche region's signature dishes, a rich pasta sauce that is mentioned in Antonio Nebbia's Il Cuoco Maceratese, though he calls it princisgras. He was writing in 1784, before the widespread acceptance of tomatoes, and indeed omits them, calling for truffles and prosciutto instead. More modern recipes do call for tomatoes, and also include chicken giblets, which give the dish its characteristic flavor.

There are as many variations on lasagna as there are cooks. This vegetarian lasagna is light and refreshing, and will be perfect in the hotter months, when a richer meaty lasagna would simply be too much.

Lasagne are, well, lasagna, one of Italy's signature dishes, and as such subject to innumerable variations. Tordelli are instead meat-filled pasta typical of the Garfagnana region, the mountains north of Lucca and east of Massa. And Lasagne Tordellati are a specialty of Massa that draws upon tordelli for inspiration.

Crespelle, as one might guess, is the Italian word for crepes, and they go back a very long ways. They also look beautiful, and are quite easy to make, once you have the hang of it, and are therefore the sort of thing that people will think you have gone to great deal more effort to make than you have. In short, the perfect beginning to a Sunday dinner or holiday meal, or something to serve company.

This very traditional Sicilian dish can be either a side dish or a pasta sauce. In the past, when the poor could grow their broccoli, but had to buy the pasta, the greens predominated over the pasta when the recipe was used as a sauce. It's also a nice accompaniment to a roast or stew.

Lasagna is an extraordinarily variable dish. This particular version, with speck and pears, is modern, and will (if made for 2) be perfect for romantic occasions too, especially Valentine's Day.

Lasagna is truly a universe; though south Italians usually make it with tomato sauce, ricotta, and some kind of meat (often meatballs), whereas northerners use Bolognese sauce and béchamel sauce, there are a great many variations. This particular lasagna with salmon will be ideal for an elegant meal during Lent, if you feel like fish, or if you're celebrating Christmas Eve.

This is a very easy recipe that will be quite nice on Valentine's Day. The pears provide a pleasant sweetness and texture that contrasts nicely with the saltiness of the speck, and the creaminess of the cheese.

Ligurians traditionally prepare trenette al pesto with vegetables -- thinly sliced potatoes and string beans -- which they cook with the pasta, and then season everything with the sauce. It is easy to extend that concept to lasagna al pesto, which will be quite refreshing, and wholesome too.

One of the most interesting, and at times frustrating aspects of Italian cuisine is dish names: In some cases the same dish will be called by different names in different places, and this is due to vagaries of dialect. Pastiera is an example of this: Though

This is an old Roman Jewish recipe: Giuliana Ascoli Vitali Norsa warns that those with weak livers had best avoid it, and indeed the ingredients would cause a dietician to raise an eyebrow. She suggests it be served for Purim.

Artichoke Lasagna, or Pasticio de Ciochi: This is an aristocratic dish; according to Amadeo Sandri, who learned to make it while serving his apprenticeship in a restaurant kitchen in Vicenza, it was developed by the cooks of one of Vicenza's leading families, the Marchesi Roi, who were renowned for the refinement of their dishes and their skill in combining ingredients and playing them off against each other.

Open Lasagna with Broccoli and Pistachio Nuts, or Lasagne Aperte Coi Broccoli ed i Pistacchi:Lasagna is an extremely variable dish -- some include tomato and ricotta, others shudder at the idea, some make it with fish, and in Liguria they make it with pesto sauce. This is a modern recipe for a lasagna that doesn't go into the oven.

Aragona's Easter Pot, or Taganu D'Aragona: This is an Easter treat, a timpano from the Sicilian town of Aragina, in the province of Agrigento. Mr. Correnti says not to be frightened by the number of eggs that go into this dish, which families have been preparing on Good Saturday since at least the 1600s, baking it at home or in the village bakery, and carrying through until the outing on Easter Monday, when it was often the only dish served.

Cannelloni, which are also known as manicotti, are festive in and of their own. When they're made into a timballo, they're also a treat for the eyes.

Baked Timballo, U Tembene o' Furne: This is an extremely rich feast day dish that was (and is) the beginning of the Christmas meal in Altamura, a town in the northwestern corner of Puglia. The recipe calls for ragù, in the sense of a meat sauce (as opposed to the slowly cooked piece of meat of the Neapolitan tradition).

In introducing a chickpea based dessert in The Art of Eating Well, Artusi cautions his readers to buy their chickpeas dry and soak them at home, because the vendors of the time frequently used the same water to soak the salt out of baccalà. As does this recipe, which will provide a tasty soup and the wherewithal for the second course, namely some baccalà. This recipe is from Puglia, and has you also use home made pasta, cut into strips about a quarter-inch wide.

This is summery baked pasta dish, which will be especially good when it's quite hot; though you can serve it hot, it will also be quite good cool.

This recipe was written up by Cavalcanti, one of the great 18th century Neapolitan gastronomes, and transcribed by Caròla Francesconi in her La Cucina Napoletana. It serves six, and will go well with a fruity white wine, for example a Fiano di Avellino.

This is a lighter version of a Sicilian classic -- baked pasta with eggplant -- that doesn't include meat. The preparation time is about 2 hours (much is letting the eggplant sit), and cooking time an hour.

Baked pasta with eggplant and meat sauce is a Sicilian specialty that has spread throughout the Peninsula. This will take about 1 1/2 hours to prepare, and should serve 8 or more.

People at Rec.Food.Cooking asked for a timpano recipe; this is from The Art of Eating Well (Random House), my translation of Pellegrino Artusi's Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene. The cooks of Emilia-Romagna are usually very good at making this difficult and expensive dish, which is excellent when well made, a thing that’s easier said than done. Maccheroni pie is a Carnival dish, and during that period of year there isn’t a luncheon or dinner in Romagna that doesn’t begin with it.

A surprisingly delicate soufflé with lots of grated cheese.

Rustic and hearty fare that will be nice in the summer, with an abundant tossed salad.

Monkfish is one of the ugliest fishes one might ever see, and for this reason Italian fishmongers often sell just the tails (which is where the meat is). And sell a lot of them, because the fish is quite tasty, resembling lobster in flavor. This recipe takes some effort, but will be nice on a festive occasion.

This pleasant alternative is especially suited to the summer months. Like its cousin, spaghetti al pesto, it's Ligurian.

There's lots of variety!

A quick, simple meat filling, and a creamy sauce to go with it.

Cannelloni with a tasty mushroom filling.

An unusual, and very tasty variation on lasagna, served with a meaty game sauce

A heartier filling, with pork and spinach, which will be wonderful in winter.

A tasty cheese and sausage filling for cannelloni.

An interesting baked pasta dish from Puglia.

It's hard to imagine anything more festive than a tortellini pie.

An unusual pasta pie whose crust is made of eggplant rather than dough. Perfect for the summer months!

Smoked salmon is an astonishingly versatile ingredient, and though it's most common use in Italian cooking -- other than as an antipasto -- is probably in the seductive pasta with smoked salmon people make on Valentine's Day, it is also quite nice in this lasagna recipe with pesto sauce.

An interesting recipe, with instructions for preparing the pasta too. From the folks at The Artisan.

An interesting vegetarian lasagna from the folks at the Artisan.

Or, baked penne with mushrooms and cheeses, the cheeses called for being Bel Paese and Parmigiano. I'd use Fontina instead of Bel Paese.