One of the perks of renting an apartment while traveling is that it give us an excuse to go grocery shopping. (As if you could keep us out of the markets….) A particular shape of dried pasta kept catching our eyes in the fresh markets and even in the supermarkets. Called anelletti, it’s a small ring-shaped pasta. We kept looking for it on restaurant menus, but to no avail. Eventually we learned that it’s mainly used in baked pastas for special events, including Easter.
Of course we bought a bag to bring home, and we’re glad we did. The shape is a little hard to find in the U.S., as most ring-shaped pastas for sale here are the even smaller rings called anellini, mostly used in soup. (Some folks call them Sicilian spaghetti-o’s.)
Like most home cooking, there are as many variations of the baked pasta as there are Sicilian cooks. We even encountered a vegetarian version in a magazine we read while waiting for our clothes to dry in a coin-op laundry in Taormina. But we were most taken with a version in a book on our own bookshelf.
Several years ago, the good folks of the Planeta wine company (planeta.it/en/) gifted David a copy of Sicilia: The Cooking of Casa Planeta by Elisia Menduni. It’s a beautful book with gorgeous photography by Adriano Brusaferri. But it’s more than a pretty food book. The recipes are very approachable. Reading through it, we found that anelletti baked with a meat sauce and topped with breadcrumbs and grated aged Sicilian Pecorino cheese is a Planeta family tradition on Easter. We had to buy some true Italian sweet provolone from our neighborhood Whole Foods. Fortunately, we had a big wedge of pungent aged Sicilian Pecorino DOP that we had purchased in an open-air market in Agrigento.
The cookbook version made enough to feed a large extended family. It’s baked in a huge round, high-sided pan called a timballo, or ‶drum.″ That’s perfect for the holiday table. But our family is smaller so we trimmed the recipe down to four servings. To mimic the effect of a timballo with a crust of breadcrumbs and grated cheese, we used a three-quart Dutch oven.
So just in time for Easter, here’s an adaptation suitable for a smaller household.
Timballo di Anelletti al Ragu
INGREDIENTS
- 350 g anelletti
- 40 g sweet Provolone cheese
30 g breadcrumbs - 30 g grated Sicilian Pecorino DOP
salt and pepper to taste
For the ragu
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion, minced
- 1 carrot (about 60 g), cut in 1/4″ dice
- 1 celery stalk, cut in 1/4″ dice
- 250 g pork shoulder, cut in 1/2″ cubes
- 250 g chuck beef, cut in 1/2″ cubes
- 1/3 cup strong white wine
- 28 oz can ground tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/3 cup water - bay leaf
For the peas
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 135 g frozen peas
- 1 small shallot, minced
DIRECTIONS
Add 2 Tablespoons olive oil to saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened. Add carrots and celery and cook another 5 minutes. Add the meat cubes and brown well. Add wine and cook until alcohol evaporates. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Add ground tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and bay leaf. Simmer over low heat for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. The ragu is ready when the meat begins to fall apart. Mash with potato masher or stick blender to break the meat up and distribute it through the sauce.
In a small saucepan, brown the shallot, then add the peas. Cover and cook for 4 minutes.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil and cook the anelletti until al dente. Drain pasta, toss with ragu, and let cool. Dice the Provolone cheese and add it to the pasta along with the peas.
Grease a tall baking dish (3 quart Dutch oven) and lightly coat it with a handful of breadcrumbs.
Pour in the seasoned anelletti. Flatten gently until the surface is even. Top the timballo with breadcrumbs and grated Pecorino. Heat the oven to 350°F and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.