Traditional Baked pasta

Here are the five easy steps of the traditional italian baked pasta recipe:

Clean up the baby onions and cut them into slices. Clean up the belly peppers by removing the stalk, the inner seeds and the white membrane inside, then chop into thin slices or cubes.

Clip the zucchini and cut into cubes. In a large pan greased with 10 ml extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), pour salt, the peppers and half baby onions. Cook at medium heat for a few minutes, then add half glass of water and let cook for an additional 10-15 minutes. Cooking time might depend on the peppers variety.

In another pan, pour the remaining olive oil and baby onions with salt. Cook at medium heat by adding some water whenever necessary.

In the meantime, cook the pasta into salted boiling water according to package directions. Drain 3 minutes before the recommended cooking time. In the pan where belly peppers were cooked, add the zucchini and toss with pasta. Add fresh ricotta, 30 g of grated parmigiano cheese and the mozzarella cut into cubes. Mix well.

Pour the pasta into a greased baking tray, add the remaining 20 g grated Parmigiano cheese and garnish with basil leaves. Cook pasta in a pre-heated oven at 200° C for 20 minutes. To get a crunchy surface, finish cooking with a few minutes in grill position.