Cooking for Wimps: Baked Pasta
Jan. 30th, 2010 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorka1 package pasta (ziti, penne, or farfalle will all work)
Cook 2 minutes less than the package directions say to. Salt the water well. Preheat the oven to 350° F while you're cooking it.
Now, at this point, if you were a Bad Motherfucker(TM), as in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
laughingrat's epic Cooking For Bad Motherfuckers posts, I would tell you to prepare a marinara or bolognese sauce from scratch. And indeed, on days when I am secure in my Bad Motherfuckertude, I would do so. If you are the kind of GQMF who spends a good lazy Sunday making a huge batch of such sauce from scratch and then freezes it in quart containers in your chest freezer - that is, if you are the sort of badass who plans ahead - why, then, get one of those suckers out of the freezer and thaw it out. But if you, like me, have failed to plan ahead, possibly due to the lack of a chest freezer, and do not have the hour or more simmering the sauce would take, why, take
1 quart jar of your favorite jarred pasta sauce
1 lb ground beef
Brown the ground beef until it's properly browned, which is to say, no more pink and starting to lose the grey, and then pour in the sauce and stir it around. If you usually add a little basil or oregano to your jarred sauce because That Shit Is Bland, Yo, why then, add it. Turn the heat down to low and let this simmer while the pasta boils.
Somewhere around here, get a reasonably large casserole dish out and butter the inside. Oh, okay, you can use olive oil if you must, but I'm telling you it will taste better with butter. Reserve
two or three tablespoons of butter
to the side, and peel
three big cloves of garlic.
Panic because you own two garlic presses and can't find either of them until you realize the good one is in the dishwasher. When the pasta's done, drain it and leave it in the colander for a few minutes. Cut the reserved butter (yes, yes, you can substitute olive oil here, too, but it will taste different; me, I like having three different fats in this) into the now-empty pasta pot, and melt it over low heat. Crush the garlic cloves into the butter and raise the heat to medium-low. Sizzle the crushed garlic until it's fragrant and the very smallest pieces are beginning to brown. Dump the drained pasta into the garlic butter and toss merrily, until the pasta is thoroughly coated. Turn both stove eyes off, because I'm paranoid about that sort of thing.
Pour half the garlic-buttered pasta into the buttered casserole. Sprinkle over
3 T or so of grated Parmesan
followed by half of the meat sauce. Cover that with
3/4 of a cup or so of shredded mozzarella or provolone
Then repeat - pasta, Parmesan, sauce, cheese. Top with another T of Parmesan. Stick the whole mess in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and dig in.
You could, if you were an ovo-lacto vegetarian, dispense with the meat entirely, but make sure you heat the sauce before adding it to the pasta, or it will take 15 minutes more in the oven.
edited because I fail at spelling
Cook 2 minutes less than the package directions say to. Salt the water well. Preheat the oven to 350° F while you're cooking it.
Now, at this point, if you were a Bad Motherfucker(TM), as in
laughingrat's epic Cooking For Bad Motherfuckers posts, I would tell you to prepare a marinara or bolognese sauce from scratch. And indeed, on days when I am secure in my Bad Motherfuckertude, I would do so. If you are the kind of GQMF who spends a good lazy Sunday making a huge batch of such sauce from scratch and then freezes it in quart containers in your chest freezer - that is, if you are the sort of badass who plans ahead - why, then, get one of those suckers out of the freezer and thaw it out. But if you, like me, have failed to plan ahead, possibly due to the lack of a chest freezer, and do not have the hour or more simmering the sauce would take, why, take 1 quart jar of your favorite jarred pasta sauce
1 lb ground beef
Brown the ground beef until it's properly browned, which is to say, no more pink and starting to lose the grey, and then pour in the sauce and stir it around. If you usually add a little basil or oregano to your jarred sauce because That Shit Is Bland, Yo, why then, add it. Turn the heat down to low and let this simmer while the pasta boils.
Somewhere around here, get a reasonably large casserole dish out and butter the inside. Oh, okay, you can use olive oil if you must, but I'm telling you it will taste better with butter. Reserve
two or three tablespoons of butter
to the side, and peel
three big cloves of garlic.
Pour half the garlic-buttered pasta into the buttered casserole. Sprinkle over
3 T or so of grated Parmesan
followed by half of the meat sauce. Cover that with
3/4 of a cup or so of shredded mozzarella or provolone
Then repeat - pasta, Parmesan, sauce, cheese. Top with another T of Parmesan. Stick the whole mess in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and dig in.
You could, if you were an ovo-lacto vegetarian, dispense with the meat entirely, but make sure you heat the sauce before adding it to the pasta, or it will take 15 minutes more in the oven.
edited because I fail at spelling
