Baked Pasta Sicilian Style

Ingredients:

Serves 8 or more.

• 1 and 3/4 lbs rigatoni pasta

• 1 cup tomato sauce

• 3 eggplants

• Extra virgin olive oil for frying

• 3 hard-boiled eggs

• 1/2 lb meatballs made by cooking meat sauce thick and forming it into balls

• 1/4 lb mild sausage, coarsely chopped

• 1/3 lb fresh mozzarella cheese, diced

• 1 and 1/4 cups grated pecorino cheese with peppercorns inside.

• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. It will take about 1 and 1/2 hours to prepare.

2. Begin by preparing the meat sauce, while it’s cooking slice the eggplants into half-inch slices, salt the slices and let them sit in a colander for an hour.

3. Rinse the slices, pat them dry, fry them in hot olive oil (a few at a time), then drain them on absorbent paper and slice them into strips.

4. Hard boil the eggs and cut them into 1/8-inch slices.

5. Boil the pasta in lightly salted water and drain it while it’s still ‘al dente’.

6. Once you have assembled the ingredients, oil a pan large enough to hold them and preheat your oven to 360° F (180° C).

7. Lay down a first layer of pasta and dot it with meat balls and strips of eggplant.

8. Lay down another layer of pasta and more meatballs and eggplant, continuing until all is used up; distribute the diced mozzarella over the top layer, together with the sliced egg and the bread crumbs.

9. Heat through in the oven for about 20 minutes and serve.