Help with baked pasta?!
Answers: I used to use that Prego pasta bake sauce to make rotini, and loved it... well, now that it's discontinued and I can't buy that sauce, I want to know how to do this. I'd imagine that I could add the sauce and noodles (uncooked) into the baking dish, and add water, but does anyone know how much water I would use? I remember with the pasta bake sauce, I had to add a jar of the sauce and then a jar of water... will this be enough, or too much? The recipe told me to add those two ingredients to the uncooked pasta, cover with aluminum foiland bake at 350 for 30 minutes, remove foil, stir and add cheese, then bake another 10 minutes. Is this enough?
I usually cook my pasta first, and then toss it with sauce and cheese, and bake it until it's boiling in its pan.
PASTA BAKE
1 lbs small rigatoni
2 jars Ragu sautéed onion and garlic pasta sauce
2 sm cans Contadina roasted garlic paste
1 14.5 oz can Progresso Italian diced tomatoes
2 cups shredded whole milk mozzarella
1 lbs block cheese - whole milk mozzarella
SAUCE:
Combine pasta sauce, paste and diced tomatoes. Simmer on stove for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally (the longer the sauce simmers the better it tastes)
In the meantime, cook rigatoni according to package. Slice cheese block into semi-thick slices.
Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
In 9x13 deep casserole dish, layer as follows cover bottom of dish with sauce, then a layer of rigatoni, then a layer of sauce, then a layer of the shredded cheese, another layer of rigatoni, layer of sauce, then the last layer, spread the cheese slices over entire casserole. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an addition 25 minutes. *****TIPS: To avoid dryness, be generous with sauce layers, pasta really soaks it up while baking. Use toothpicks at each end to keep the foil from sticking to the cheese
An alternative could be:
Half cook the noodles on the stove, drain, butter or spray your baking dish, add noodles then favorite pasta sauce to cover, then add the empty sauce jar full of water, or chicken broth...if baking too much of the liquid off, add more sauce or broth...if coming out too 'soupy, cook more noodles and add them fully cooked...spread a layer of favorite cheese and voila!