pasta 'ncasciata

Probably one of the ugliest pasta dishes to photograph, Sicilian PASTA 'NCASCIATA is utterly ridiculous but a fantastically genius combination of flavours and a great baked pasta alternative to lasagne...

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INGREDIENTS (5-6 people)

• 500g (17.5oz) pork (mince/shoulder)

• 800g tomato polpa

• 2 small carrots

• 2 onions

•  garlic clove

• 1 large celery stick

• chicken stock

• large handful black/green olives

• nutmeg

• 100g (3.5oz) napoli salame

• 100g (3.5oz) prosciutto cotto

• 2 large handfuls caciocavallo cheese

• 1 large aubergine

• 1-2 sprigs rosemary

• 4-5 hard-boiled eggs

• pangrattato

PASTA

• 400g (14oz) dry/fresh rigatoni

(Sainsbury’s)

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First, the bad news. Pasta 'ncasciata (ang-cashatah) isn't a recipe that you can simply throw together and have on the table in half an hour. It's a recipe solidly stuck in the spend-most-of-the-morning-preparing tradition... and that's simply because, in a similar way to Sicilian Timbalo or making Lasagne, you first need to make a sauce and cook at least 2 other ingredients (aubergines and pangrattato) before you go anywhere near the oven.

You’ll need to allow at least 2-3 hours to do this, so you’ll have plenty of other time to prepare the other ingredients while it simmers! I used leftover roast pork to make this ragù, but you can just as easily use 5% fat pork mince or pork shoulder combined with beef mince etc.

In Sicily Pasta 'Ncasciata is normally made with a tomato sauce base, but you might also like to try the 'white' version (below), which you'll find in my book Pasta & Magic: Oil Sauces.

the ragù

You'll could make a meat ragù similar to a Bolognese to use as the base of the red version Pasta 'Ncasciate, but I prefer more of a Southern Italian feel to the sauce and I use cuts of meat like pork shoulder, diced into cubes of about 2cm square.

Start with a finely chopped soffritto of onion, carrots, celery; after a minute or so adding garlic and sweating with a little water until the onions are translucent and the carrots have almost lost their crunch. In a separate pan, fry the meat until it’s cooked through. Add a splash of white wine and cook off the alcohol and most of the moisture, then add the pork to the soffritto.

Add more wine to the mix, a glass or two of water and a chicken stock cube (or two, to taste), bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes. You’ll need to make sure it doesn’t dry out, and add a little water / stock / wine every so often. Don’t make it too salty by adding too much stock and go easy on the wine. After half an hour, add the tins of polpa. mix, and allow to continue simmering. Keep tasting all the time!

Half way through the simmering time, add a glass of whole or semi-skimmed milk and mix through the sauce, then continue to simmer. Grate a whole nutmeg into the mix together with a bay leaf then after another half hour or so, add a glass of milk, stir through, and then continue to cook for at least another hour.  

the aubergines

Cook the hard-boiled eggs and allow to cool. Next, cut the aubergines into approximately 25mm cubes and fry gently in EVO with a sprig or two of rosemary, until they’re soft. You can allow them to get golden brown, but be careful not to burn them. Remove the rosemary when it's given the aubergines flavour to your liking.

the meat and cheese

Cut the salame and prosciutto up into thin ribbons and chop the cheese into small cubes. If you can’t find caciocavallo cheese, mature English Cheddar could be a substitute. Similarly, almost any kind of cooked British ham could be swapped for the prosciutto. I’ve used mixes of prosciutto crudo, cotto, Tuscan wild boar salame, Napoli salame and mortadella too.

the pangrattato

While the aubergine is cooking, make some pangrattato, which I'm sure you know is fried breadcrumbs, traditionally used in Southern Italian pasta dishes as an alternative to sprinkling grated cheese on the finished dish.

For the pangrattato, old ciabatta or focaccia-type bread is best; if you only have fresh bread available then give it 20 minutes in the oven to crisp up a bit, then pulse in a blender until you have chunky but uniform crumbs.

I like to add half a small fresh cayenne chilli / hot smoked paprika and an anchovy fillet while it’s blending, plus either oil from the anchovies or EVO - for 200g bread, at least 3 or 4 tablespoons. Don’t go too greasy, but make sure you give your pangrattato enough flavour! Cook the pangrattato in a non-stick pan gently and slowly. It’s done when it turns golden brown or has a slightly nutty flavour - just DON’T overdo it!

the pasta

When the other ingredients are cooked, par-boil the pasta for half the packet cooking time. As an alternative to rigatoni, consider paccheri or stracci for short shapes or candele lunghe or sagne torte for long shapes.

putting it together

Drain it and combine with the ragù in a large mixing bowl. Add and mix in the prosciutto, salame, cheese, aubergines, and the sliced boiled eggs. Spread a thin layer (8-10mm) of pangrattato on the bottom of a large oven dish (the type you might use for lasagne) and gently spoon the combined pasta into it. Top with a layer of pangrattato followed by a layer of grated pecorino and a drizzle of EVO.  I like to add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper (peperoncino) on top of that too. Bake in a hot oven for around 25-35 minutes. Serve immediately.