Baked pasta with classic tomato sauce recipe

Ingredients


For the tomato sauce:
 a small bunch of fresh basil
 1  onion, diced
2 small cloves garlic
 1 tablespoon olive oil
1  can  of diced tomatoes
freshly ground black pepper

For the bake
½ teaspoon salt for water
500g  of tortiglioni (or other short pasta can be used) 
 ½ cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 mozzarella balls ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
breadcrumbs 


To make the sauce
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C .
Pick the basil leaves, keeping any smaller ones to one side for later. Peel and finely chop the onion and the garlic.  Put a large pan of salted water on to boil.

2. Next, heat a large frying pan on a medium heat and add a some olive oil. Add your onion to the frying pan and stir for around 7 minutes or until softened and lightly golden.

3. Add your garlic , and as soon as they start to get some color add the large basil leaves and then the tomatoes. Bring to the boil and add the pepper.
To put the bake together
4. Cook the pasta according to package directions, but remove from water when slightly undercooked, as the pasta will continue to cook when baked.

5. Drain the pasta, return it to the pot and stir in the tomato sauce and ricotta. Put half the pasta in a square baking dish  and then add the mozzarella slices,  cover with the other half of the pasta and add some more mozzarella and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top. Add a handful of breadcrumbs (as it will make a nice crust).
Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese on top is golden and crusty, this will take around 25/30minutes. Scatter some of the smaller basil leaves over each serving. And add more parmesan if you wish to.




Buon appetito!