Rigatoni baked with aubergines and meatballs

After yesterday’s simple recipe, I’m going to the other extreme today. This takes quite a while to assemble but is worth it in the end. Real Italian ‘comfort food’  😉

Serves 4

•  500 g Rigatoni
• 1 Aubergine
• Olive Oil
• 100g Provola cheese
• 1 Mozzarella
• 100 g Cooked ham
• 400 ml Tomato sauce (if you have time, make your own. As you can see from the pic, I cheated.)
• 100 g Grated Parmesan or Grana Padano

For the meatballs

• 450 g Minced beef
• 25 g White breadcrumbs
• 1 Egg
• 15g Grated parmesan
• Parsley, chopped
• 1 Clove garlic, finely chopped
• White pepper

• Heat the oven to 180°C
• Make the meatballs by mixing all the ingredients and forming small balls with the mixture.

• 

  Rigatoni with aubergines and meatballs

•  Boil the rigatoni in salted water until cooked. Drain. Cut the aubergine into slices 1cm thick. Grill until soft.
• Grate the provola, slice the mozzarella, chop the ham.
• In a baking dish put a layer of rigatoni. Place in order a layer of aubergine and then a few meatballs. Cover with tomato sauce, cheeses and ham. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up. Scatter grated Parmesan over the surface.
• Bake for about 25-35 minutes until the mixture is bubbling and the top is golden.

Rigatoni with aubergines and meatballs

This is adapted from a recipe collected by Matthew Fort in his book Eating Up Italy(excellent foodie porn). The original included sliced hardboiled eggs and he fried the aubergines. I didn’t think my arteries could cope with that 🙂