Preparing the Bolognese Sauce ↪

Prepare the Bolognese Sauce from scratch as briefly described below or use a commercial sauce. Detailed instructions can be found in the recipe for Bolognese Sauce ↪.

Briefly, wash and chop the vegetables: 1 onion, 1 carrot and a half cup of celery.

Stir fry onions, celery, and carrots with 2 tbsps of olive oil until wilted.

Saute 1 lb of ground beef until well browned. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Add a can of tomato sauce stir well often. Lower the heat cover and simmer for few minutes or until ready.

Preparing the Bechamel Sauce ↪

Prepare half of the quantities described in the recipe for the Bechamel Sauce ↪

Melt 1/4 stick of butter in 1 1/4 cups of milk. Sift 1/8 cup all purpose flour in the milk, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Adjust of salt and sprinkle with ground nutmeg.

Heat over very low heat and Boil for about one minute, always stirring. You should obtain a smooth and creamy sauce. Let cool.

Preparing the Pasta and Baking the Casserole

Bring to boil enough water to cook the Pasta in a large pot. Add salt and, when boiling again, the Rigatoni Pasta.

Cook about two minutes less of the time indicated in the package. The pasta should be fully cooked but still hard. Drain well the pasta.

In a large bowl mix together the pasta with the Bolognese Sauce ↪ and 3/4 of the Bechamel Sauce ↪.

Mixing very well add the shredded mozzarella cheese.

Grease a big baking pan and add the pasta.

Cover them with the remaining Bechamel sauce and finally top with abundant grated Parmigiano cheese.

Bake in the oven the Pasta Pie at 400F for about 20 minutes. Before serving, broil on high for additional 3 to 5 minutes to brown.

Remove from the oven and serve accompanied with chilled red Italian wine.

Pasta pie keeps well for few days in the fridge. Simply reheat in the microwave or on the stove top with some milk and butter. Consider also making it in abundance and freeze single size portions.

As great variation instead of Rigatoni pasta, you can use Spaghetti broken into 2 inches long pieces.

This recipe can also be adapted to reuse Bolognese pasta leftovers and for creating new casseroles recipes using other kinds of pasta sauces.

Great also when eaten cold for a picnic.