Baked Italian Pasta

In Italy baked pasta (pasta al forno) does not mean only lasagne or cannelloni. There are many dishes, made with dried or fresh pasta that can be finished in the oven, and every region has its specialities.

In fact, backed pasta seems to have been the first kind of pasta made in Italy. The Romans (rich once, at least) liked to roll out sheets of dough, cut them into wide strips, then  them with meat sauce and cheese, and bake them in the oven. they called these dishes lagana and we can see little the word – and the recepie – has changed over time.

Nowadays baked pastas are usally made on festive days or special occations such as weddings. They range from a very simple pasta gratinata where pasta is tossed, placed in a baking dish with or without bechamel, sprinkled with parmesan and placed under the grill. then there is the timballo, where pasta and sauces are layered in an oven dish, each layer being finished with cheese (parmesan or mozzarella), and then baked. But the ultimate baked pasta dish would have to be timpano, where a large baking dish is firstlayered with pastery or grilled eggplant, then filled with pasta and very substantial sauces containing meatballs, sausages, salami and cheeses, whitch are then covered with more layers of pastry or eggplants and baked. the result is a wonderfull cake-style layered dish, which is carefully sliced and eaten with as mutch passion as it takes to make it.