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Passport & Plate - Piatto Pasta con Pomodoro

Italy | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Pasta
1 package flat pasta sheets (I used Olivieri oven ready)
3.5 cups of tomato sauce (homemade recipe below)
2 cups fresh chopped mushrooms (I use Oyster, shitake, and white button mushrooms)
2 cups fresh zucchini (1 medium zucchini sliced thin 2-3 millimeters)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
.5 cup shaved parmigiano cheese
1 small can tomato paste (5.5 oz)
1.5 cups of smooth ricotta cheese
1 egg
8 fresh chopped basil leaves

Tomato Sauce (makes 6 cups)
12 medium fresh vine tomatoes
2 tbsp cracked black pepper
2 tbsp cracked sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 small shallots
2 medium cloves garlic
8 fresh chopped basil leaves

 

How to prepare this recipe
To prepare the tomatoes for the sauce, you'll need to remove the skin of the tomatoes. Do this by coring and removing the vine stems, and then lightly slicing an x across the back of the tomato. Bring a pot of water to a high boil and then drop the tomatoes in for one minute (or less) until the skin starts to peel back. Remove tomatoes and place in a bowl of cold water, the skin will now peel back easily.

In a saucepan saute shallots and garlic in olive oil on low stove heat for 1 minute, making sure not to burn the garlic. Mix into the garlic and shallots your tomatoes, and increase stove heat to medium for 15 minutes. Using a wooden spoon gently separate the tomatoes in the pan to break them down into smaller pieces and add 8 chopped basil leaves and tomato paste. Decrease stove heat to low and let sauce simmer for another 45 minutes, total cooking time should be no longer than 1 hour.
While sauce is cooking chop zucchini and mushrooms, and shred mozzarella cheese. Prepare the ricotta cheese by gently folding in one egg to the ricotta. Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

To prepare the pasta take your baking dish and spread a light layer of sauce on the bottom of the dish, and place pasta layer over sauce.
Layer the rest of the dish as below in order:
First layer: light layer of sauce, half of the ricotta mixture, light layer of shredded mozzarella, pasta layer
Second layer: zucchini, light layer of mozzarella and tomato sauce, pasta layer
Third layer: mushrooms, light layer of mozzarella and tomato sauce, pasta layer
Fourth layer: light layer tomato sauce, remaining half of ricotta mixture, light layer of shredded mozzarella, pasta layer
Final layer: light layer of sauce and mozzerella, shredded parmigiano and chopped basill

Place in oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until cheese on top is golden.

 

The story behind this recipe
I took a break from life 4 years ago. I sold the entire contents of my apartment in a yard sale, packed a suitcase and moved to Argentina. There were 7 of us living together in Buenos Aires; one full bathroom, one very small kitchen and a large beautiful living room. My roommates got accustomed to me making dinner for them. There was everything from a taco night complete with a tequila hangover to a pizza night complete with a Malbec hangover.
But one of the most special nights was my last night in the house before further travelling Latin America. I made ‘piatto pasta con pomodoro’, my Italian mother's recipe. Besides Sunday night dinners, if a baby is born you make piatto pasta con pomodoro and drop it off to the family as a joy offering, if someone loses a friend or family member you make piatto pasta con pomodoro to comfort them, if my mother wants to guilt my sister and her husband to coming over for dinner, she phones "I’m making ‘piatto pasta con pomodoro’ for dinner, come over".

From Argentina I moved to Guatemala for a few months, then on to Nicaragua. On my last night before heading back to Argentina from Nicaragua, I offered to make piatto pasta con pomodoro. It became a departing night meal several times during my travels. My version of my mother’s recipe is never the same, sometimes I put a little more of this and a little less of that. Nonetheless it is always delicious.
For a year in Latin America, I was addicted to learning how to make ceviche, empanadas, and anything that involved an avocado, but I was most happy making my family recipes for my new friends.

So what is piatto pasta con pomodoro you ask? It’s lasagne and there is nothing average about it. It will transport you to a family dinner table in Tuscany in a matter of minutes, it will make you book a trip to Italy because you need to learn to speak Italian after eating it. It will simply put a smile on your face and have you saying “Ciao”!