Making meals from a new cookbook is always fun, but one problem is making them an appropriate size for just two people. Sometimes the leftovers can be frozen for a meal another time, but most of the time we just eat it until it is gone over the next few days. No matter how good the recipe, I get tired of it after day 2 and really don’t want to see it anymore. So, I am continually doing experiments to make smaller sizes. Often a published recipe can simply be cut in half, but not always. So, using the recipe for a ragu on page 242 of the Milk Street Backroads Italy: Finding Italy’s Forgotten Recipes book as inspiration, I came up with a new recipe for you. The original recipe calls for long hours of roasting in an oven, and I will take a big shortcut that will add that slow roasted flavor yet cut down on the volume so the recipe serves two, with only one day of leftovers for a second meal. Or, the recipe can be assembled into two smaller dishes and one frozen before baking for a meal another day.

I wanted a bite size pasta as that is what My Sweet Babboo likes best. I didn’t want to have to fiddle with lasagna noodles as they need more handling and take longer to assemble. Next I needed a way to get a roasted flavor without spending hours on it. The original recipe called for a 28-ounce can of tomatoes, which will make a lot of sauce. The Fire Roasted Tomatoes now available in a can are fabulous, a smaller size, and just the thing to get that extra dimension of flavor.

Here are the ingredients for the dish –
1 14.5-ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
2 cups shell pasta or other bite size pasta
dash salt
olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 lb Italian pork sausage
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
6 dollops ricotta cheese
8 oz Italian cheese blend
Dried basil

Preheat oven to 350º. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. In a blender or food processor, puree the fire roasted tomatoes. Add tomato sauce and set aside.

In a medium size pot, fill halfway with water and add a dash of salt and olive oil. Bring to a boil. Add pasta and boil according to package directions.

Drain and pour into prepared baking dish.

While pasta boils, sauté onion in a bit of olive oil in a skillet until translucent. Add garlic and sauté one minute. Add to tomato sauce.

In the same skillet, cook and crumble Italian sausage until no longer pink. Drain on a paper towel lined plate.

In the same skillet, add a bit more olive oil and sauté mushrooms until barely soft. Add drained sausage and tomato sauce with onions back to skillet. Mix well into a ragu.

Layer ragu on top of pasta.

Dollop with ricotta.

Top with cheese. One of my tricks for making baked dishes look even more appetizing is to sprinkle dried herbs onto the cheese before baking. So, here I used dried basil. The amount doesn’t matter, use as little or as much as you like.

The cheese is a blend of shredded cheeses called Italian Style that has mozzarella, provolone, Romano, Parmesan and Asiago.

Bake 30 minutes until bubbly and lightly browned. Doesn’t this look scrumptious?

Makes 4 servings (2 for tonight and 2 for tomorrow) of yummy, thick, meaty, tomato goodness with lots of cheese and bursting with flavor.

Served with a small side salad, it is a delicious meal. Plus, cleanup is less as you use the same pan three times and only wash it once. I clean up while it bakes, so after we eat there are only our plates and forks left to wash. A slice of crusty bread is good with it too.

Download the recipe pdf – Baked Fire Roasted Tomato Pasta

I have become quite a fan of these canned fire roasted tomatoes. See my recipe for Fire Roasted Tomato Soup on my post Hen Party.

The Milk Street Recipe that got me started on these tomatoes was for Persian Eggs with Beef and Fire Roasted Tomatoes (pdf download link) from the World in a Skillet cookbook. This is a great Sunday brunch dish.

I got the Hunts brand at my local grocery store, but there are other brands available. If you are a prime member, see the Fire Roasted Tomatoes on Amazon.
Have you tried fire roasted tomatoes?