Sometimes, recipes call for garlic in the soffrito as well, although in general onions and garlic aren’t used together. Southern Italian tomato sauce is normally made without soffrito. Instead, they use tomatoes, garlic and basil. Gather all your ingredients before you, the pasta, the cooked sausage, frozen peas, grated cheese, basil leaves and marinara. Anelletti al forno with eggplant is a classic Sicilian baked pasta made with meat ragu and peas, eggplant, hard boiled eggs and anelletti, a small ring shaped pasta of Sicilian origin. This impressive pasta dish is prepared on special occasions or for Sunday lunches with family. Cover the bottom and sides of the pan with overlapping eggplant slices. Let the slices hang over the sides of the pan as shown. Despite its rather undignified status as tin-can pasta, Anelli pasta is an extremely versatile ingredient that can be a perfect addition to most dishes. Whether it’s served swimming in warm broth or baked inside Timpallo, anelli is a great ingredient to elevate your pasta dishes.

Making the rings isn’t too difficult. After kneading, allow the dough to rest, then cut off small pieces, roll them out into thin ‘snakes’, cut the snakes into 6-7cm lengths (2.5”), wrap them around your index or middle finger and seal the ends together. Step 2 gather the ingredients for the alla pecorara sauce. Freeze and cook from frozen. Recently here in Chicago we had a huge snow storm and woke up to our neighbors shoveling out our long driveway, so as a thank you I brought this dish over to them to have for dinner.I like the flavor of Italian sausage so I used that but other versions use ground meats. Also in my house I always have homemade marinara stashed in my freezer seasoned with garlic and basil, so that’s what I used here, s you can make homemade yourself or to make things easier and go a little faster you can use a good quality store bought one, I repeat… Good Quality! ( I won’t tell). Add the potato, squash, soaked porcini and fresh mushrooms, fry, stirring, for a few minutes more, then add the liquid and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, then add the pasta and continue cooking, stirring regularly, until it is tender, adding more water if you think it needs it. Place the eggplant slices on the baking sheets without overlapping them. Brush the tops with olive oil (about 2 more tbsp.) and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Making this alla pecorara tomato sauce is quite easy. Just sauté the soffrito, then add tomato passata or chopped peeled tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 15-20 minutes and then take it off the heat and mix in the ricotta. I kept aside some ricotta to add to the plates before serving. Step 4 Cook the vegetables. Wash and cut the eggplant, zucchini and sweet peppers into cubes. The sautéed veggies. Drain the pasta and add it to the tomato sauce and mix well. Then plate and add some sautéed vegetables, fresh basil leaves, extra ricotta and grated pecorino if using. As I mentione above Italian pecorino isn't vegetarian so you can leave it out or use vegetarian parmesan. Let me know what you think.For example, prepare the meat ragu, eggplant and hard boiled eggs a day or two ahead. If you happen to have a batch of meat sauce in your freezer, defrost it and stir in some peas. Repeat layer like above with remaining ingredients ending with bechamel and a light layer of marinara. Like I said there are many versions of this dish, I got inspired to add the bechamel from a video I saw on Rosella’s Cooking with Nonna, and I’m so glad I did because it really makes the sauce dreamy. Anelli, also known as anelletti (Italian for “little rings”) is a small, circular pasta . These pasta rings can come in two sizes, and the smaller size (a noodle you might recognize from the American pantry food SpaghettiOs) is called anellini. Where does it come from? The bechamel mingles with the marinara and parmesan cheese and creates a creamy, luscious sauce that envelopes the anelletti pasta so well.

Anelli pasta is from Sicily in Southern Italy. The Sicilian people love this type of pasta and use it most frequently in pasta al forno dishes, i.e. baked pasta. One of the most revered pasta recipes in Sicily is Timballo, which is like a round, savory cake made out of anelli pasta, meat, cheese, vegetables, sauce, and breadcrumbs (or some kind of crust). What kind of meals can I make with anelli or anellini Pasta? Like several other Sicilian baked pasta recipes, this dish is made with a meat ragu with peas, eggplant and hardboiled eggs.So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever made a Timballo? Have you seen the movie Big Night? And if you have any cool small food business recommendations in Sydney please send them through! Known in the UK by the rather undignified title of ‘spaghetti hoops’, anelli are a pasta variety that has become synonymous with childhood nostalgia, served in a soupy, tomatoey sauce fresh from a Heinz tin. However, despite these slightly unsophisticated associations, they are in fact an authentic Italian pasta shape. Meanwhile, in a large, heavy-based pan, warm the oil and butter, and gently fry the onion, celery, carrot, rosemary and a pinch of salt until soft and translucent. Chef Salvatore Fraterrigo – Head Chef and Owner of Norma Gastronomia Siciliana restaurant in New York City – grew up in Trapani but also lived in Palermo. He considers anelletti al forno to be his version of comfort food. “I remember when we went to Mondello, the most famous beach in Palermo, and we’d bring the anelletti al forno with us. The smell of the ragù was all over the beach. It was the perfect dish after a long and tiring day.” Soak the porcini in 150ml warm water for 20 minutes. Lift out the soaked mushrooms, then filter the soaking liquid and top it up with water to make 1.2 litres.