Anelletti al forno, essentially SpaghettiOs for adults, is a Sicilian Sunday supper classic that you’ll want to eat all week long. Learn how to make the tasty comfort dish at home regardless of where you live.
When you travel to Palermo, you’ll want to eat a number of classic Sicilian dishes like pasta alla Norma, arancini and involtini. You may also want to eat sardines, usually mashed up into pasta to create pasta con le sarde, or a spleen sandwich (i.e. pani ca’ meusa) if you’re feeling adventurous. We ate all those foods during our visit but it’s another dish, anelletti al forno, that’s lingered longest in our food memory banks.
Anelletti al forno is pure comfort food thanks to its combination of ring shaped anelli pasta, meat sauce, cheese and peas. If you’re lucky, on the right evening and in the right trattoria, you’ll eat the baked pasta dish during your trip.
But here’s the thing – you don’t have to travel to Palermo to eat the Siciliana pasta dish. You can also eat anelletti al forno at home.
What Is Anelletti al Forno?
Anelletti al forno is Sicily’s answer to Bologna’s lasagna verdi al forno and Naples’ pasta Genovese. It’s also a dish that’s fun to cook and eat at home.
It only takes a couple hours to prepare anelletti al forno but takes way longer to eat. This dish is ample and can keep your house fed for days. It doesn’t require hand made pasta – all you need is dry anelli pasta, ground beef, some chopped vegetables and tomato sauce. It seems simple but, when you combine other elements to the bake, like peas, cheeses and, in some recipes, hard boiled eggs, this baked pasta dish is a mighty mouthful.
Anelletti al forno will strike a familiar tone if you ate spaghettiOs as a kid. But, unlike canned pasta, this fun yet sophisticated dish is ideal for kids of all ages.
Ingredients
While anelletti al forno is notable for its small ring noodles, the dish’s other key element is a simple meat and vegetable based ragu that’s similar to Italian ragus in regions like Emilia-Romagna and Piemonte. It’s an easy dish to make at home. Sure, there’s a small amount of chopping and stirring required but that’s about it. These are this recipe’s necessary ingredients:
Note: In Sicily, caciocavallo cheese is as ubiquitous as pecorino or parmigiana. It has an aged flavor and meltability that makes it unique. The best substitute would be aged provolone but, in the absence of that, we found that using mozzarella, with its stretchy meltability, along with an umami rich cheese like grated parmigiana or pecorino romano, totally works. We use low moisture mozzarella, the kind of cheese commonly used on New York style pizza, in this recipe.
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
How To Make Anelletti al Forno
Our anelletti al forno recipe has two parts. First, you make the ragu. Once the ragu is cooked, you bake the finished dish (pasta and ragu together).
When making the ragu, adding a generous proportion of vegetables – about 1 cup each – gives the ragu depth. Before adding the ground beef, it’s important to make sure the vegetables are cooked until they’re tender to the bite.
The peas are a different matter since fresh and frozen peas take a while to cook. You don’t want your peas to taste raw. You also don’t want them to be mushy. Therefore, the smart move is to add the peas, either fresh or frozen, in the last 15 minutes of cooking the ragu.
Start this recipe by cooking chopped carrot, celery and onion (i.e. sofrito) in both butter and olive oil until the vegetables are tender. Stir constantly until the onions are opaque and the carrots are tender to the bite. This step should take about 15 minutes.
After the vegetables are cooked, add the meat one half at a time. Once the entire mixture browns and a fond forms on the bottom of the pan, add wine to deglaze the pan. We like to use white wine but red wine works too.
When the wine has cooked down and you can see the bottom of the pan with the drag of a wooden spoon, add the tomato puree along and the basil. At this point, start preheating your oven to 400°f / 200°c.
Bring the mixture to a slow simmer for at least 45 minutes. If the mixture grows too thick, you can add a little water to keep it from burning.
With about 15 minutes left, add the peas. Adding them too soon or too late will result in peas that are either mushy or overly firm.
Take the cooked ragu off the heat to cool and start cooking the anelli.
Cooking the pasta rings may seem like a simple process. It is. But you need to stir the anelli a lot since, unlike bigger pasta shapes like spaghetti and ziti, these rings have a nasty habit of sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Pro Tip
When we say to stir a lot we mean it. Stir the anelli constantly at first and at about every two minutes afterward. They may be cute but these pasta rings tend to have a mind of their own!
After the anelli is cooked and drained, it’s time for the fun part of assembling the pasta, ragu, breadcrumbs and cheese for the bake
Begin by combining the pasta, ragu, two thirds of the mozzarella (or provolone or caciocavallo) and two tablespoons of grted pecorino or parmigiana in a mixing bowl. Butter a heat proof baking dish and sprinkle a light coating of the breadcrumbs on top. Next, spoon the pasta/ragu/cheese mixture into the baking dish.
Top the mixture with the rest of the mozzarella cubes, one tablespoon of the bread crumbs and some grated pecorino and place the baking dish in the oven on the middle rack.
Bake until the dish is golden brown. This should take about 30 to 45 minutes depending on your oven.
Let the dish cool for a few minutes and then serve. This grown up version of SpaghettiOs is Sunday night Italian cuisine at its best.
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Heat oil and butter in a 3 to 4 quart saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil is heated and the butter is just melted, add the onions, carrot, and celery to the pan. Add a pinch of salt. Cook until just pale golden and tender – about 15 minutes. When the vegetables are tender, optionally grate in a small amount of nutmeg (about 1/2 teaspoon) and add the optional chili flake.
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Add half of the ground beef and cook until the meat is just brown. Add the second half of the ground beef. When all of the beef is browned and a fond forms at the bottom of the pan, pour in the wine and scrape off the fond. Cook until almost all of the wine evaporates.
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Add the tomato puree along with any juices from the puree and cook, simmering slowly, for 40 minutes. Add water if the sauce gets too thick. (You don’t want the sauce to stick and burn.) At the end of the cooking time, the ragu should be thick enough to slowly drop off a spoon. Once cooked, take the ragu off the heat.
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Preheat the oven to 400°f / 200°c
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Cook the pasta in a relatively large pot until just al dente – about 2 to 3 minute less than the package instructions. Make sure you stir the anelli frequently so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. Stop cooking the pasta when it’s just a little firm in the center. Drain and let the pasta cool slightly.
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Place the anelli, ragu, half of the mozzarella and half of the grated cheese into a mixing bowl and thoroughly combine. Butter a baking dish and coat it lightly with the breadcrumbs. Pour in the pasta/ragu mixture and even out the top. Top with the remaining mozzarella, grated cheese and 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs.
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Bake the pasta for about 30 to 45 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve to your hungry guests or family.
Frequently Asked Questions
Loosely translated to oven baked little rings, anelletti al forni is a baked pasta dish from Sicily that combines rings of anelli pasta with a savory meat-based ragu, vegetables and cheese.
Anelletti al forno is a Sicilian dish that’s especially popular in Palermo.
Anelletti’s key ingredients include anelli pasta, ground beef, vegetables, mozzarella cheese, pecorino romano cheese and peas.
Yes. You’ll have plenty. This anelletti al forno recipe will feed you throughout the week.
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