Baked Pasta Fagiole

At a family reunion many years ago, I prepared this baked pasta, beans, and cheese recipe to feed a big crowd.  It's a cheese-laden casserole version of the classic Tuscan soup, "Pasta Fagiole" (lovingly called "Pasta Fazool" in my family).  This pasta dish was a huge hit at that reunion in the 90's and so for this year's family reunion 20 years later, my mother and I prepared it once again.  The same result happened . . . it was devoured!  If you're watching your weight, you'll have to pass up on this, because it's pretty heavy in the calories, carbs, and fat.  But you have to indulge sometime huh?  If you don't like beans, you can leave them out, but then it wouldn't be a spin off of the famous Tuscan Pasta Fagiole soup.  "Fagiole" simply means "beans" in Italian.

Here's the recipe for you to prepare someday when the heat of summer turns down and you're wanting some rib-sticking comfort food.  I hope that you enjoy!

Mangia!

click on 'read more' for this delicious recipe!

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A Slice of Lasagna!

A slice of the lasagna that I made yesterday . . . I've posted this photo a day later because once sliced, it sort of falls all over itself when cut directly out of the oven.  It holds it's shape much better if you wait a day, plus it even tastes better.  The recipe is included in the preceding post.  Enjoy!

See how nicely it stays stacked?  Four layers of pasta deliciousness!

This special lasagna pan was purchased from Chefs.com and could easily have handled an additional fifth layer!

Mangia!

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Lasagna for Loved Ones in the Heat of Summer!

If there is one pasta dish that is truly a labor of love it has to be lasagna!  The time and expense of making lasagna sadly prevents me from making this indulgence very often; my family is lucky if I make it once a year.  But my husband insisted that I make my lasagna for a very dear friend today whose mother passed away.  Despite the 90 degree temps outside, we heated up the oven and the kitchen to bake two big pans of lasagna.  And as you know:  special people deserve special things and our friend is certainly worth this extra effort during her time of loss.

This recipe is very special to our family; so special in fact, that our oldest son loves it so much that he asked for the recipe to prepare for dinner on the evening that he proposed to his girlfriend (and she said 'yes'!).  Now that's a compliment!  I've also given this recipe to my daughter who shared it with all of her teaching friends in Tennessee.  My youngest son in Chicago, an aspiring young cook, always "wow's" his friends with this lasagna too.

I've only used one lasagna recipe other than this one, which is a very traditional lasagna for the Italian Carnivale and that I shared in a post on February 22, 2011.  Truthfullly, this recipe is even better than the decadent "La Grande Lasagna di Carnivale".

The Bolognese sauce for this lasagna is not my family recipe, but it is still wonderful.  It has a little bit of sugar added that many Italian cooks often add to soften the tang of the tomatoes and which my family never added.  Actually for this recipe, I think it is quite a nice addition.  If you don't like to add sugar to your tomato sauces, just omit it.

If you decide to go ahead and jump in and prepare this lasagna, give yourself quite a big portion of your day to make the Bolognese sauce OR make the sauce the day before.  The sauce is the big time demand of this dish.  I hope that you enjoy this wonderful lasagna.  Please let me know if you prepare it and what you think!


Mangia!


please click on 'read more' below for this delicious recipe!

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