This week’s recipe was inspired from a movie called “Big Night” starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub. As I searched how to make it, I found that there are as many ways to create it as there are cooks. Therefore, I chose a recipe that looked fairly do-able for everyone and looked awesome, at the same time. Because of the inadequacy of the original recipe we followed, we decided to create our own. Thus, there is another Timpano di Maccheroni recipe now out there – this one created by non-Italians.
Your oven will be 350 degrees.
Here are the ingredients that you’ll need for the inside:
3 C pasta sauce – make your own or buy your favourite. (Chef Karen bought her fav.)
1/2 Box of frozen meatballs, if you wish
125 g of penne or your favourite pasta
8 oz. salami or pepperoni (divided into 2 )
Bechamel sauce (which is: 2T butter, 2T flour, 1 1/4 C milk, salt and pepper, dash of nutmeg and 1/4C Parmesan cheese) in medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook until starting to brown. Stir in milk and whisk to smooth until bubbly and thickened. Whisk in cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
3 hard boiled eggs cut into quarters
6-8 black olives – pitted
2C mozzarella cheese
Pasta base:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 egg yolks
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp cream or half and half
Either by hand, In food processor or big mixer with dough hook, mix flour, salt, egg, and cream together and process or hand knead until dough is smooth and shiny. Check dough for wet/dry consistency, adding a bit of water or flour to achieve ball of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for at least one hour to allow protein bonds to form and elasticize the dough.)
In the meantime, cook your pasta and divide it in half. 1/2 goes with the bechamel sauce, 1/2 goes with the meatballs. When your dough is ready, put it together.
Spray your casserole dish and scatter it with bread crumbs
Then, roll out your dough and put it in your dish.
- Add your salami or pepperoni
Put in the bechamel sauce with the pasta
add your eggs
Now, add your pasta with meatballs. layer on your olives and add the rest of the pepperoni
add the yummy mozzarella cheese
cover over with the dough. (I obviously had a little hole)
Cover the whole thing with tin foil and bake for 1 hour in the oven.
Here is what it looks like out and cut. A nice addition is some more pasta sauce over the whole top.
Pretty cool looking piece of supper
And here it is on a plate
Chef Jonathan:
Spray your casserole dish with baking spray and fit in the Pâté Brisee to cover bottom and run up the sides of the pan, with enough overlap to cover the pasta. Then, layer in pancetta or pepperoni.
Layer in the long pasta, mixed with the bechamel (in this case, I used linguine). I also topped with mozzarella cheese.
Layer in the short pasta, mixed with the meat sauce, then top with mozzarella.
Then, finish with layering in the rest of the pancetta/ pepperoni.
Pull up the Pâté Brisee, stretching if needed, until enough is yielded to overlap the entire dish, and crease. Wet a pastry brush with water, if desired, to ensure it’s sealed.
Cut a slice, or two………
…..and enjoy!
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