Pasta casserole from Naples with meatballs

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 500 g minced meat dumplings, small, homemade or ready-made product
• 400 g rigatoni, alternatively penne
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 jar red wine
• 1 pack of tomato puree, approx. 400 g
• n. B. Salt
• e.g. tarragon
• n. B. Celery leaves, chopped
• e.g. broth, instant
• e.g. chili powder
• 4 slices of raw ham (e.g. Black Forest)
• 200 g cheese (Gouda), middle-aged
• 1 egg(s), hard-boiled, sliced
• possibly fried eggplant(s) (e.g. leftovers from the day before)

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 40 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes

Baked Neapolitan rigatoni

I first ate this dish in Naples about 20 years ago and searched for a recipe for a long time. Here it is: Brown the meatballs (even the store-bought ones!) in a casserole dish as wide as possible. Remove them. Briefly sweat the very coarsely chopped garlic in the pan juices and immediately deglaze with red wine. Reduce the heat, add the tomato puree and spices, and simmer covered over low heat for a good 30 minutes. Shortly before the end of the cooking time, add the coarsely chopped ham and, if using, the eggplant. Meanwhile, cook the pasta, add it to the tomato sauce, and mix well. Add the meatballs (it’s okay if they’ve cooled down). Top the whole thing with cheese and egg slices, cover, and let it sit on the stovetop over low heat for 10 minutes to melt the cheese. In Italy, mozzarella is used, of course, and the casserole is placed in the oven. This creates a crust. In the version described, the casserole will be a little juicier.