Italian-Style Baked Pasta in the Oven
Pasta cake - unusual, bright, and interesting! Italians don’t just boil pasta; they also bake it in many ways. This recipe is like lasagna, but uses rigatoni tubes instead of sheets. You get delicious baked pasta with cheese!
Updated : 23 February, 2026
Easy
More than 1 hour.
Ingredients
400 grams
Macaroni
2
Eggs
50 grams
Hard cheese
Bechamel
250 grams
Milk
20 grams
Butter
20 grams
Wheat flour
to taste
Nutmeg
to taste
Salt
Bolognese
300 grams
Ground meat
1
Onion
1
Carrot
100 grams
Tomato sauce
250 milliliters
Meat broth
125 milliliters
Red wine
2 tablespoon
Olive oil
to taste
Dry spices
to taste
Ground black pepper
to taste
Salt
Table
Table of volume measurements:
- teaspoon - 5 ml
- dessert spoon - 10 ml
- tablespoon - 20 ml
- glass - 200 ml
Preparation
Step 1
How do you bake pasta? This will be done in three stages: first we’ll make béchamel and Bolognese sauces, then we’ll bake the cooked pasta with them. Prepare the ingredients for the béchamel.
Step 2
Take a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the butter, and place it over low heat. Melt the butter and immediately - without waiting for it to boil - add the flour, salt, and nutmeg. Stirring constantly, toast the flour until you get a pleasant nutty aroma; this takes just a couple of minutes.
Step 3
Then pour the milk into the flour mixture in a thin stream, stirring vigorously with a spoon to avoid lumps. Switch to a whisk and, stirring constantly, cook the sauce until it thickens. Turn off the heat and let the sauce cool.
Step 4
Prepare the ingredients for the Bolognese sauce. You can leave out the broth and wine and add water to the meat instead, but a traditional Italian version includes them. People often add celery stalk among the vegetables, and bacon along with the ground meat. For tomato sauce, I always use passata (strained tomatoes).
Step 5
Cut the onion into small cubes.
Step 6
Cut the carrot into small cubes as well.
Step 7
Heat a skillet and pour in olive oil. Add the vegetables. Sauté, stirring, for 5 minutes.
Step 8
Add the ground meat to the skillet. Use a spatula to break up large clumps. Fry it with the vegetables for 5 minutes.
Step 9
Pour in the tomato sauce and stir.
Step 10
Pour in the broth and wine, add salt and spices.
Step 11
Stir and cover with a lid. Reduce to very low heat and simmer the sauce for at least 45 minutes. Italians simmer Bolognese for 2 hours or longer - then you’ll need to add about 1 liter of broth.
Step 12
You’ll also need pasta, eggs, and a hard cheese. Italians make this dish with rigatoni - long hollow tubes - but you can use other pasta shapes with a similar form. Traditionally, Parmesan is used.
Step 13
Boil the pasta in salted water. Cook it 1 minute less than the package directions. It shouldn’t break apart or get overcooked.
Step 14
Time to assemble the pasta cake. Take a springform pan. Mine is 20 cm (8 in). Grease the bottom and sides with butter.
Step 15
Crack the eggs into the Bolognese sauce.
Step 16
Stir the sauce with the eggs. Set aside a few spoonfuls.
Step 17
Add the pasta to the sauce and mix.
Step 18
Now the most time-consuming part: arrange the pasta in the pan so the tubes stand upright vertically. Pour over the reserved sauce.
Step 19
Spread béchamel sauce on top. I had some béchamel left over. Sprinkle with a couple of spoonfuls of grated Parmesan.
Step 20
Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C (374°F) for about 20 minutes. It’s best to wrap the bottom of the pan with foil so any leaking sauce doesn’t burn in the oven. I placed the pan inside a larger pan. Adjust to your oven.
Step 21
Carefully run a knife between the pan wall and the “cake,” then remove the ring. Serve the baked pasta, garnished with herbs.
Author note
Share the recipe
