Penne al Forno (Italian Pasta Bake with Beef Ragu)

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Yield: 6

Penne al Forno (Pasta Bake)

4.6 Stars (14 Reviews)

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My penne al forno is a hearty Italian pasta bake made with rich beef ragu, tender penne and plenty of melted cheese. I love this kind of dinner when I want something comforting, generous and easy to serve straight from the oven. The pasta soaks up all that slow-cooked tomato and beef flavour while the cheesy top turns golden and bubbling. It’s a brilliant family dinner, great for feeding a crowd and exactly the sort of baked pasta that makes leftovers worth looking forward to.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 aubergine, diced
• 1 courgette, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 500g lean beef mince
• 500g passata
• 1 cup beef stock (or broth)
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
• 3 bay leaves
• 250g penne, uncooked
• 125g fresh mozarella cheese

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until soft.
2. Add the courgette, aubergine, and garlic and cook over low-medium heat for 5-10 minutes, or until the aubergine is completely soft and starting to melt into the onions.
3. Add the tomato paste and stir through, cooking for an additional minute.
4. Add the beef mince and cook over medium-high heat until browned and cooked through.
5. Stir through the passata, beef stock, basil, marjoram, and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and simmer for an additional 30 minutes, or until the sauce is rich and thick. Remove the bay leaves.
7. Preheat oven to 200°C (conventional)
8. Cook the pasta in well-salted water according to packet instructions, reducing the cooking time by 2 minutes. The pasta should not be fully cooked. Drain and stir through the beef sauce until well combined.
9. Transfer the mixture to a casserole dish and top with the fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the mozzarella is golden and blistering. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

• Penne al Forno is the Italian version of a pasta bake, and it's infinitely better than the average. A rich, slow-cooked beef ragu packed with hidden vegetables, topped with blistered fresh mozzarella. It's the kind of dish that feeds a crowd and gets better the next day.
• Cooking the aubergine down until it's completely soft and melting into the onions is the key step. Undercooked aubergine is spongy and unpleasant. Give it the full time and it will essentially disappear into the sauce, adding body and richness without anyone noticing.
• The long, slow simmer is what develops the depth of flavour in the ragu. Don't rush either the covered or uncovered phase. You want the sauce thick enough to coat a spoon before the pasta goes in.
• Undercooking the pasta by 2 minutes is essential. It will finish cooking in the oven, and overcooked pasta in a bake becomes mushy and loses all its texture.
• Fresh mozzarella gives you those beautiful blistered, golden pools of cheese on top. Pre-shredded mozzarella won't give you the same result as it contains anti-caking agents that prevent it from melting properly.
• Letting the bake stand for 10 minutes before serving makes a significant difference. It firms up slightly and makes slicing and serving much neater.
• I use this large casserole dish for pasta bakes. It's deep enough to hold the full recipe without spilling and goes from oven to table beautifully.
• This dish tastes even better the next day once the flavours have had time to develop. Make it ahead if you can.
• Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the oven at 180°C for 20 minutes, or until heated through and the cheese is golden again.
• This bake freezes well before the final oven step. Assemble everything in a freezer-safe dish, cover tightly, and freeze for up to 2 months. Bake from frozen at 180°C for 40-45 minutes, or until bubbling and golden.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 369Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 91mgSodium: 287mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 4gSugar: 6gProtein: 34g

Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

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Penne al Forno recipe

Cosy Weather Time

Is there anything nicer on a lazy weekend than penne al forno? That moment when the cheese bubbles up around the edges, the pasta is golden and crisp on top, and the scent of garlic and tomato fills the kitchen? Heaven. Absolute heaven. My penne al forno recipe is one of those dishes I turn to when I want something that’s hearty, comforting, and makes the house smell like someone’s Italian nonna is visiting. The ragu is rich and full-bodied, the veg adds this sweetness and texture that makes it taste far fancier than it is, and the cheese pulls? Oh yes, they’re worth every bite.

I’ve always said I like recipes that are a bit flexible and forgiving, and this one is just that. I’ve used penne, obviously, but honestly? Whatever you’ve got in the cupboard will do. Fusilli, macaroni, rigatoni. Doesn’t matter – as long as it holds sauce, you’re in business. What makes this version a bit special is the addition of aubergine and courgette. As they cook down, they lend this gorgeous sweetness to the meat sauce and make everything feel a little bit silkier. Especially the aubergine as it simply melts into the ragu. And that’s what you want, right? Something that tastes like it simmered all day but actually didn’t!

With winter settling in (even if the calendar insists it’s still July), this kind of meal just hits different. It makes a huge batch, which I love, because it means dinner is sorted for days (unless Hubby eats it all in one day as he is prone to do – not out of love of the recipe, but because he’s a pig). Or, pop it into the freezer and you’ve got an easy meal ready for some rainy Wednesday night when you can’t be bothered cooking.

A Pasta Bake by Any Other Name

Let’s be real, penne al forno is just pasta bake wearing its shinies shoes. Al forno literally means “to the oven” in Italian, so it’s not some fancy-pants recipe that requires hours of prep or specialty ingredients. It’s honest, simple, and completely satisfying. If you grew up in a household that called it a pasta bake, same. But doesn’t penne al forno sound infinitely more comforting? Like something you’d eat with a glass of wine while a storm rages outside. Which, incidentally, is how I enjoyed mine last week. Storm, wine, blanket. You get the vibe.

You don’t need anything complicated to make it shine either. Just a good sauce, a decent pasta, and a bit of cheese. That’s the foundation, and the rest is personal flair. Add more veg if you’ve got it, or keep it classic. I’ve even made a version before where I snuck in a bit of leftover red wine from a bottle I’d opened the night before (strictly for cooking, of course… ahem). It added this richness that made me feel like I’d made something properly fancy when really, I was just trying not to waste wine. Priorities.

And speaking of proper tools, I’ve finally done it. I bought a stand mixer. Yay, me! After years of putting it off and moaning every time I had to whip cream by hand, I now have a beautiful machine that does the work for me. I’m already mentally planning my Christmas baking schedule. It’s going to be a cake extravaganza in here. No more excuses. If the mixer’s out, I’ve got to bake. So expect a few festive cake recipes popping up soon.

Frequently asked questions

Why do the aubergine and courgette need such a long cook before the mince goes in? The aubergine in particular needs the full time over low-medium heat until it’s completely soft and starting to melt into the onions. Undercooked aubergine is spongy and unpleasant and no amount of subsequent simmering will fix it. When it’s done properly it virtually disappears into the sauce, adding body and richness without being detectable as a distinct ingredient. The courgette follows the same principle on a shorter timeline.

Why does the ragu need to simmer for a full hour? The covered simmer builds the initial depth of flavour as the stock and passata cook into the meat and vegetables. The uncovered simmer then reduces the sauce until it’s thick enough to coat a spoon properly before the pasta goes in. A thin, watery ragu produces a thin, watery bake. The hour is not negotiable if you want the right result.

Why does the pasta go in two minutes undercooked? Because it finishes cooking in the oven during the twenty to twenty-five minute bake, absorbing the sauce and the moisture from the mozzarella as it melts. Pasta that goes in fully cooked will be soft and mushy by the time the cheese is golden and blistering. Two minutes short gives you perfectly al dente pasta in the finished bake.

Ingredient breakdown

Lean beef mince

Added to the pot after the vegetables have had their full cook time, browned over medium-high heat until cooked through before the passata and stock go in. Lean mince is the right choice here because the sauce simmers for a full hour and a fattier mince would make the finished ragu greasy rather than rich. The long simmer gives the mince time to become deeply flavourful and tender rather than just cooked.

Olive oil

The fat the onion starts cooking in before the aubergine and courgette follow. A single tablespoon is all that’s needed because the vegetables will release their own moisture as they cook down.

Onion, aubergine, and courgette

The vegetable base of the ragu, cooked in two stages. The onion goes in first for about five minutes until soft, then the aubergine and courgette follow with the garlic for a full five to ten minutes over low-medium heat until the aubergine is completely soft and starting to melt into the onions. This stage is the most important in the whole recipe. Properly cooked aubergine disappears into the sauce and adds body and richness that nobody will identify but everyone will notice. Don’t rush it.

Garlic

Three cloves of minced garlic going in with the aubergine and courgette, cooking gently alongside them until fragrant before the tomato paste follows.

Tomato paste

Stirred through after the vegetables and cooked for a minute before the mince goes in, caramelising slightly and losing the raw, tinny edge before the long simmer begins. The same principle as every other recipe in this collection that uses tomato paste.

Passata

The primary liquid of the ragu, adding a smooth, concentrated tomato base that reduces and deepens over the full hour of simmering. Citric acid free passata gives a sweeter, less sharp result.

Beef stock

Added with the passata and simmering down into the ragu over the long cook, adding savoury depth and the additional liquid needed for the uncovered reduction phase to work properly without the sauce catching on the bottom of the pot.

Dried basil, dried marjoram, and bay leaves

The herb blend that runs through the ragu during the long simmer. Dried herbs work well here because they have time to rehydrate and bloom into the sauce properly over an hour of cooking. The bay leaves come out before the pasta goes in.

Penne

Cooked in well-salted water for two minutes less than the packet instructions, then drained and stirred through the ragu before the whole lot goes into the casserole dish. The pasta absorbs the sauce and finishes cooking in the oven, which is why it can’t go in already fully cooked.

Fresh mozzarella

Torn into pieces and scattered over the top of the assembled bake rather than grated or pre-shredded. Fresh mozzarella produces those beautiful blistered, golden pools of melted cheese that make a pasta bake look genuinely impressive. Pre-shredded mozzarella contains anti-caking agents that prevent it from melting properly and won’t give you the same result.

Salt and pepper

Season the ragu after the passata and stock go in, then taste and adjust again before the pasta is added because the sauce will have reduced and concentrated during the simmer.