This is another recipe from Alison Roman’s Something from Nothing that is perfect for a cold winter night. Make the sauce by cooking onions, garlic, seasoning and canned tomatoes. For the cheese mixture, combine ricotta, cream and garlic. Cook the pasta. Assemble by layering the sauce, pasta and cheese mixture. Bake for about 40 minutes. Cook’s notes: Don’t be shy about using enough sauce, otherwise the pasta will be dry. If you want the finished product to be more browned on the top, place the pasta under the broiler for a minute or two. This would also be very good with a meat sauce. Add a pound of ground meat or poultry when the onions are cooking and then continue with the sauce recipe, cooking for an extra 30 minutes.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

Unico tomatoes, Tre Stelle ricotta and Simple brand mozzarella are all free of colour, additives and preservatives. Genuine Parmesan is also free of colour, additives and preservatives; look for the name stamped on the rind.

Baked shells

Ingredients:

¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil

Kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper

2 large or 4 small onions, diced

8–10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced, plus 1 clove garlic, grated

½–1 (2.5-5 ml) teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional

1 (28-ounce/796 ml) can whole peeled tomatoes, packed in juice

1 (28-ounce/796 ml) can crushed tomatoes

1 cup (250 ml) ricotta

3 tablespoons (45 ml) heavy cream

1 pound (454 g) large pasta shells

½ pound (227 g) salted mozzarella, roughly torn by hand or grated on a box grater

Parmesan, for grating

Preparation:

Make the tomato sauce: Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is totally softened and translucent (without letting it brown, turning down the heat if needed), 8 to 10 minutes. Crush the whole tomatoes by hand and add them (including the juice) and the crushed tomatoes to the pot, stirring to scrape up any bits from the bottom of the pot. Fill the empty can about halfway with water, swirling to get any excess crushed tomatoes hanging around, and add it to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper and add red pepper flakes, if using. Bring to a simmer, then reduce to medium-low (or low, depending on your stove) and cook, stirring occasionally, letting it bubble gently, until the tomato sauce has thickened and flavours have come together, at least 30 minutes, and up to an hour and a half.

Make the cheese mixture: In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, heavy cream, and 1 clove grated garlic. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Prepare the pasta: Heat oven to 425°F (218°C) and place a large pot of salted water to boil on the stove. Cook pasta until it’s nearly al dente and drain. Return pasta to pot and add two cups sauce, tossing to make sure the sauce gets in all the nooks and crannies and is nicely coated.

When assembling, try not to fuss too much over the measurements, but be mindful that you always want to end with a good amount of cheese and sauce on the top to give you a bubbly, browned top.

Spoon a bit of the remaining sauce in the bottom of a 3-quart (3-L) baking dish, then add ⅓ of the pasta. Spoon a little sauce on top, then dollop with ricotta and dot with mozzarella. Grate parmesan on top. Add another ⅓ of the pasta, followed by more sauce, more ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan. Add the rest of the pasta, more sauce, the rest of the ricotta, mozzarella, another good grating of parm and some pepper (there’s a good chance you’ll have some pasta sauce left over– refrigerate or freeze for another time).

Place the baking dish on a foil-lined sheet pan and loosely cover the baking dish with foil. Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes before removing the foil and continuing to bake until it’s nicely browned and bubbling, another 20-ish minutes. Let cool at least 5 minutes or so before eating– it will stay very hot for a while, so don’t worry. Serves 6-8. The sauce can be made 5 days ahead, refrigerated and can be frozen for up to two months. The baked pasta can be assembled and baked several days ahead, kept wrapped and refrigerated. To reheat from cold, simply bake per the instructions above. It can also be assembled and frozen up to two months ahead– to reheat from frozen, keep wrapped in foil and bake at 325°F (162°C) until totally defrosted and bubbly (60-ish minutes), remove foil, increase temperature to 425°F (218°C) and bake until golden brown, 20 minutes or so.

From Something from Nothing