Jamie Oliver's Baked Pasta with Tomatoes & Mozzarella

Jamie Oliver's Baked Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

Jamie Oliver is a chef after my own heart. His recipes call for a handful of this, a splash of that or even a glug. Nothing is terribly exacting when you are cooking savory dishes; they are open to experimentation. When baking you don't have the same culinary freedom to throw things in with abandon. Perhaps that is why I would NOT call myself a baker and usually dread having to make anything resembling a pastry crust or anything in the category of sweets. I love to eat all of these things, so, I do try, but I can't compare my creations to those well seasoned cooks out there or anyone in The Daring Bakers. Kudos to you ladies and gents!!! Thank goodness baking is not my day job!!!

Perhaps it also goes back to my rebellious nature and not wanting to follow rules and regulations. I am so regimented in my job, everything has to be done with precision and with such high attention to detail that perhaps I thrive a little too much on bending the rules. I get a little spark in my eye when I throw in 12 cloves of garlic or a few too many hot peppers. I don't like to be regimented. Baking is such a precise science that it does not bend to my nature. If I throw in too much baking soda or eggs it would flop...which is also against my nature because I must succeed!!!!

I am entering this recipe of Jamie's into the Presto Pasta Nights over at Ruth's Once Upon a Feast. Ruth is a talented cookbook author in Halifax who also does cooking class parties as well. Every Friday she has a pasta roundup with all of your wonderful pasta creations. I get so many fantastic ideas from all of you that I have enough recipes to last me 2 life times!! I wasn't able to find orecchiette even at our local Italian market. They had the "little ears" but they were too small. So, I opted for Gomiti instead.

**Jamie Oliver's Baked Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella**

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1 or 2 dried red chilies, crumbled

1/5 kg/3-1/4 lb ripe tomatoes or 3 (400 g) cans of good quality plum tomatoes

a large handful of fresh basil leaves

1 T red wine vinegar (optional)

400 g/14 oz dried orecchiette (little ears) or other similar pasta

4 big handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

3 -150 g balls of fresh mozzarella

Preheat your oven to 400F and pit a large pot of salted water on to boil.

To an appropriately sized pan add a couple of glugs of good quality extra virgin olive oil, your onion, and chili and slowly saute for about 10 minutes on a medium to low heat until softened but without any colour.

If you're using fresh tomatoes, remove the core with the tip of a small knife, plunge them into the boiling water for about 40 seconds until their skins start to come away, then remove with a slotted spoon or sieve and remove then pan from the heat. Put the tomatoes into a bowl and run cold water over them, then slide the skins off, squeeze out the pips and roughly chop. (I'm guessing that the pips are the seeds?)

Add your fresh or tinned tomatoes to the onion and garlic, with a small glass of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Now put the tomatoes through a food processor or liquidizer to make a loose sauce.

Tear your basil leaves into the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt, pepper and a little swig of red wine vinegar.

When the liquidized sauce tastes perfect, bring the water back to a boil. Add the orecchiette to the water and cook according to the packet directions, then drain and toss with half of the tomato sauce and a handful of Parmesan.

Get yourself an appropriately sized baking dish, pan or earthenware dish and rub it with a little oil. Layer a little pasta in the tray, followed by some tomato sauce, and a handful of grated Parmesan and 1 sliced-up mozzarella ball, then repeat the layers until you've used all the ingredients, ending with a good layer of cheese on top.

Pop it into the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden, crisp and bubbling.

Italians seem happy to eat this dish at room temperature or quite cold, but I (Jamie Oliver) prefer to eat it hot.

Serves 4

You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author/owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.