Baked pasta recipes: 10 simple and delicious recipes to try with tips and advices

Baked pasta is one of the classic first courses on Sundays and holidays. A simple, versatile and quick to prepare dish, which you can make in many different ways: red baked pasta, white baked pasta with béchamel, stuffed baked pasta, timbale, and many other tasty recipes that will amaze your guests. Baked pasta is also a good way to recycle leftover pasta; whether it's rigatoni, spaghetti, rice, just add a tasty sauce, cheese or mozzarella and bake, creating a delicious gratin that will make the dish even more inviting and greedy. So let’s see 10 baked pasta recipes to try!

1.Red baked pasta

The red baked pasta is the most classic recipe that is prepared with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and bechamel, flavored with oregano and basil and sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. Prepare the sauce; fry the chopped onion, then add the tomato pulp and garlic, add salt and cook for about 40 minutes. Cook the pasta in abundant boiling salted water, drain it al dente and season with the sauce, add the aromatic herbs, grated parmesan cheese and mix. Pour everything into a baking dish, add a few tablespoons of béchamel, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and cook in the oven at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes; in the last 5 minutes, turn on the grill to brown the pasta. Serve immediately hot.

2.White baked pasta with bechamel sauce

White baked pasta with bechamel is a classic and tasty first course without tomato sauce; a versatile dish in which the basic ingredient is bechamel, which you can enrich with cooked ham, provolone cheese, minced meat, vegetables, peas. Like almost all baked dishes, it can be prepared in advance and baked before being served; a first course to prepare in no time that adults and children alike will love. Prepare the béchamel, cook the pasta, drain it al dente and arrange it in a baking dish, add ¾ of the béchamel, add the chopped provolone cheese, the cooked ham, cover with the rest of the béchamel and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese. Bake at 200 degrees C for 30 minutes until the surface is browned.

3.Baked pasta pie

The baked pasta pie is a truly original first course to serve to your guests. Cook the rigatoni, drain when al dente and place them upright inside a hinged pan, arrange them all around, proceeding towards the center of the pan. Fill them with ricotta cheese, the minced meat and cover them with the tomato sauce or the meat sauce, arrange the slices of mozzarella cheese, oil, salt, basil and grated parmesan cheese on top and bake at 190 degrees C for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and wait 5 minutes before cutting it into slices and serving.

4. Stuffed baked pasta

Stuffed baked pasta (use conchiglioni pasta, if possible) are a really tasty first course. In fact, the pasta shape lends itself to being filled, in our case with ricotta cheese and spinach, seasoned with an exquisite tomato sauce and béchamel and a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese. Cook the conchiglioni, drain when al dente and place them in a baking dish, fill them with eggs, ricotta cheese, grated parmesan cheese, boiled spinach, salt, pepper and nutmeg well mixed together. Cover with the tomato sauce and béchamel, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and bake in the oven at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes.

5. Macaroni and cheese

A truly delicious baked pasta comes directly from America, the classic macaroni and cheese, an exquisite pasta with cheese, typical of the American tradition, which you can prepare to amaze your guests. It is short pasta cooked al dente and then topped with cheddar cheese melted in a sort of creamy béchamel, with the addition of grated parmesan cheese. They must then be baked in the oven at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes and enjoyed hot and stringy.

6. Spaghetti bundt pie

The spaghetti bundt pie is the perfect baked pasta for recycling leftover pasta, making a sort of Neapolitan pasta frittata, prepared in a bundt mold; a quick and tasty recipe. Cook the spaghetti, drain when al dente and place them in a bowl, add the beaten eggs, the salami cut into pieces, pepper and grated parmesan cheese and mix. Place everything in a bundt mold and cook at 180 degrees C for 25 minutes.

7. Rice sartù

The rice sartù is a dish of the Neapolitan and Campania tradition; a rice timbale stuffed with peas, hard-boiled eggs, meatballs and mozzarella cheese. A greedy and irresistible baked first course seasoned with Neapolitan ragù that is a full-bodied meat-based sauce. A scenographic dish that is often prepared on holidays and that is usually cooked in a donut mold, assuming the shape of a ring or a crown. The rice sartù can be also eaten the day after preparation; just heat it up and it will be as good as freshly baked.

8. Sicilian pasta

Although the name may be misleading, it is a Neapolitan baked pasta. Sicilian pasta  is in fact a Neapolitan version of the classic pasta alla norma; the difference is in using fresh mozzarella cheese instead of salted ricotta cheese. After the preparation, the Sicilian pasta will then be baked au gratin for about 10 minutes, until a delicious and crunchy parmesan cheese crust forms. Once ready, you can enrich the surface with fresh cherry tomatoes and a few basil leaves.

9. Baked anelletti pasta

Baked anelletti pasta is a typical Sicilian first course that is prepared with a ring-shaped pasta, very common in Sicily. Once cooked and drained al dente, the pasta will be added to a ragù sauce with peas and minced caciocavallo cheese. Everything will then be baked in the oven, inside a greased pan and sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and baked in the oven at 180 degrees C for about half an hour.

10. Gnocchi alla sorrentina

Gnocchi alla sorrentina, also known as baked gnocchi, is a truly delicious first course. Once you have prepared the homemade gnocchi, just cook them in boiling salted water and then bake them in a pan with fresh tomato sauce, fiordilatte cheese, basil and a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese. Brown them in the oven at 200 degrees C for 5 minutes in grill mode and enjoy hot and stringy with a few leaves of fresh basil.