Rigatoni Pasta Pie
Adapt: quick-dish.tablespoon.com
Can you even begin to believe what you’re looking at? Is it pasta? Is it a deep dish pizza pie? Is it ridiculous? Is it being summoned to your belly right about now?
Before we go on, I’m telling you now, this wasn’t my original idea. But when we saw it over on the Noble Pig, all of my lids flipped at once, I experienced blindness and heart murmurs, and strange utterances escaped my lips, along with tiny rivers of drool. It had to be done.
I veered from her recipe just a tad, replacing beef with turkey, and adding crushed red pepper flakes for a good kick in the pants. I also danced like a rubber chicken when making it, but that’s not rightly important right now.
Before you faint, let’s just make it. The RIGATONI PASTA PIE
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–Grab some rigatoni, some ground beef, can tomatoes, garlic, crushed red pepper, parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
-Then get your ground beef all browned up in a pan with the garlic and crushed red pepper. And salt! add tomato.
-Also, while you’re at it, cook that rigatoni until it’s slightly underdone, maybe 3 minutes under what the box says. Then drain it under some cool water.
-Then toss it with a cup of parmesan! This is pre-toss.
-This is what your sauce looks like after about 20 minutes of simmering. Taste it. Uh huh.
-Okay now (and see, you’ll do all this at the same time. Your sauce simmers while you prepare the pie.), just tightly pack the rigatoni in a 9-inch springform pan. You’ll probably use the entire pound of pasta, believe it or not. Some rigatonis will be a little taller than others.
-Once it’s all packed in the pan, pour the sauce on top. Isn’t this so neat? And then as best you can, try and push the meat sauce down into the pasta holes. Some of the meat crumbles will be bigger than the meat holes and won’t be able to fit down in it.Place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and bake another 10-15 minutes until cheese is golden. Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen and then unmold.
-Seriously. Now this is after it’s all baked up and cheesy. Okay, watch what happens when that spring thingy comes off.
-Voila! Is this not so bizarre? I laughed so hard.
