“Perfectly cooked pasta coated with parmesan cheese then covered with a delicious meat & veggie marinara sauce and smothered with mozzarella cheese and baked to bubbly perfection”
Ok, so I have been wanting to try this recipe for a long time. The presentation of this is absolutely stunning. Isn’t it so pretty!?!
I had to ask myself if I really, wanted to spend the time to put each piece of rigatoni pasta perfectly in a springform pan?
Well as you can see, I did it, and guys….it is worth it!
The only downfall is if you are a sauce lover, it will go to the bottom and them kinda drain out. BUT, no worries because you can totally drizzle it with some more sauce and then you’re set!
You start with the boiled rigatoni noodles, be sure to not over boil! We don’t want any super soft or soggy ones or they just won’t stand upright!
Then drain and pour them onto a baking sheet and .drizzle with olive oil making sure each noodle gets its fair share, then they coated in parmesan cheese, don’t be stingy with that cheese! Give it a mix with your hands and then…coat the pan with a thin layer of olive oil, being sure it’s completely covered.
Stand the noodles up like little soldiers around the springform pan! It will take one pound exactly, you shouldn’t have any noodles left.
The sauce
I took one pound of hamburger and a half of an onion, diced, added it to the burger and then browned the meat and kinda minced it with the spatula so they were very “crumbly”
I added a jar of our favorite spaghetti sauce. We had homemade pizza a couple of days earlier and I had some leftover olives and peppers so I diced them finely and stirred into the sauce with some diced zucchini also…
When it was warmed through, I covered the noodles with it.
AND then the cheese…
Two and a half cups of ooey-gooey goodness! I used tin foil to line the bottom of the springform pan and then add one to the top. Put it into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake an additional 15-20
And this is what comes out of the oven! Perfectly cooked Rigatoni Pie.
You guys!
So good, so pretty and not too hard to make!
You can totally make this to your liking. You can do just cheese and sauce, veggies and sauce, meat and cheese, make it a pizza style one, oooh, maybe an alfredo one or mac-n-cheese one… make it your own and have fun!
Meat & Cheese & Veggie Rigatoni Pie
Ingredients
- 1 lb. rigatoni pasta
- 3 Tbsp. olive oil divided
- 2 jars favorite spaghetti sauce
- 1/2 C. grated parmesan cheese
- 2 1/2 C. Mozzarella
- 1/2 onion minced
- 10 olives diced
- 1/2 zucchini diced
- 1/2 red pepper diced
- 1 lb hamburger browned and drained
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°
- Boil the water for your noodles following the box directions. Aldente for about 7 minutes. Then transfer to a baking sheet with 2 Tbsp. olive oil and toss it. Using the 1/2 c. parmesan, then coat and mix again.
- Line the outside of the pan with foil, Place on a baking sheet.
- Grease a 9-inch springform pan, stand each rigatoni noodle up in the pan in a single layer until you have filled up the entire pan.
- Top with the meat & veggie sauce. Then the mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake it for another 15-20 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
- Remove the pan from the oven and let the rigatoni pie cool for 10 minutes before releasing the side of the pan, and slicing.
