Baked penne dish
Did you know that the Dutch are known as ‘cheese heads’ (kaaskoppen)? I’m quite sure it is not a term a Dutch person would use for themselves but it is an internationally known term. I wasn’t entirely sure how we got to be called that, other then the fact that we sure do eat cheese a lot.
As it turns out, our friendly neighbors the Belgians, came up with that name in the period of the “Belgische Opstand” (1830-1939) when they no longer wanted to belong to the Netherlands and were calling us names. You guess what one of those names was; ‘kaaskop’. The thinking was that the round cheeses produces looked a bit like a head.
Gooey goodness
In fact when going a bit further into detail there appear to be several stories about the origin of the word but in general it is definitely something the Belgian’s call us..:) And that’s fine; there is quite some name calling involved in the relation between Belgians and the Dutch! Lol…
Now having said that; I LOVE cheese. Seriously. Any cheese really but I have a strong preference for Italian cheese, French cheeses and strong cheeses. But then I also love Old Amsterdam (strong old Dutch cheese, which is delicious!) or well, like I said all cheese.
So when I was approached by Sargento to feature one of their recipes on my blog I did not have to think long and hard. I mean… it’s cheese! When browsing through the collection of seriously yummy recipes on their site I kept going back to the one featured on the front page, which was an oven dish with baked penne and eggplant featuring some lovely mozzarella cheese. I used minced veal in this dish but the original is vegetarian so check it out here if you’re more a veggie person!
Baked penne
My father in law was coming for dinner last night so this is a good dish to serve if you have an informal dinner party. You can prepare the dish upfront and just pop it in the oven half an hour before you’re ready to eat. Tom thought it was a tiny bit on the cheesy side, but then he is not a big fan of cheese (weird man, that man of mine!!) but he did find the flavors here lovely, so this will definitely be made over and over again.
Baked Penne with eggplant, tomatoes and cheese
Print recipe
| Serves | 4 |
| Prep time | 10 minutes |
| Cook time | 1 hours, 5 minutes |
| Total time | 1 hours, 15 minutes |
| Meal type | Main Dish |
| Misc | Serve Hot |
| Region | Italian |
| Website | Adapted from Sargento |
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic (minced)
- 4 tablespoons fresh oregano (chopped)
- 3 pieces tomatoes (chopped into cubes)
- 3 sprigs thyme (leaves only)
- 1 shalot (finely minced)
- 350g minced vealmeat
- 400g penne (or other type of pasta)
- 1 courgette (chopped in cubes)
- 150ml tomato sauce
- 200g mozzarella (chopped or grated)
- 100g old cheese (grated)
- 1 eggplant (cut into cubes)
Directions
| Preheat the oven to 180 C. (350 F) Brush a large enough baking dish with 1 tbsp of olive oil. | |
| In a heavy skillet first brown the vealmince first until cooked. Bake the eggplant separately until cooked and set aside. Add the chopped onions to the veal, with the garlic and zucchini and bake until cooked. Add the eggplant back in and add the chopped tomatoes. Leave cooking until the tomatoes have lost most of their liquid at which point you add the tomato sauce in. I use a sofrito tomato base for this. | |
| Mix in chopped oregano and thyme and season the dish to your liking with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Cook your penne pasta in 11-12 minutes until al dente. Drain, rinse and add a little olive oil to the pasta to prevent it from sticking. Add the pasta in your vegetable mixture and fold in 2/3 of the grated cheese. Transfer to the baking dish. Put the mozzarella on top of the dish and finish with the remaining grated cheese. Bake this dish for 25-30 minutes in the oven. If it becomes to brown then you can cover it with aluminium foil. | |
Junglefrog Cooking disclosure: This post was sponsored by Sargento. Though I have been compensated to write this post, all opinions expressed are my own.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Great that this can be made ahead of time and pop in the oven half hour before serving. Love the idea of making individual portions.
Thanks Norma. yes you can add different things into each portion depending on each person preference (or keep them all the same ofcourse..:)
We Brits have the same relationship with the French: they call us “Rosbifs” and we call them “Garlic-eaters” or “Froggies” after their habit of eating frogs’ legs.
I share your love of cheese – there are very few types I wouldn’t enjoy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot of different countries that have a similar ‘name calling’ relationship with the country close to them (either geographical or otherwise)..
Ah ha, now I see what you mean by your comment- I can see that this is exactly your version of a solo cooking meal! Great timing, and really tasty idea to bake individual pasta casseroles.
And the good thing is that you can ad whatever you want into each little pot
Baked penne are just irresistibly scrumptious and this casserole looks just mighty good!
Cheers,
Rosa
Thanks Rosa and delicious it sure was. We had some leftover so will be having it for dinner again tonight!
wow cool ! 4 people in my family likes their food to be served how each one likes ! And this is one of the best looking pasta dishes I’ve come across
Lol.. well not sure about the goodlooking part but it sure is tasty!
We can never get enough of penne or any type of pasta. It’s so delicious. Thank you for another idea
ratedkb.blogspot.com
I agree. It’s my go to dish whenever I have no inspiration. I can always make a pasta dish!
Mmmmm…you had me at “baked penne”…this looks mighty comforting Simone!
And it is..
With a boring and grey day as today I so feel like making this again!
deliciously done looks wonderful
Thanks you!
Mmmm …. I love this, hassle free
Yes hassle free indeed and yummy too!
To the keeper file this goes. I love everything about this dish (eggplant, tomatoes, cheese, pasta) and your gorgeous photos just makes it even more enticing. Thanks for a winning recipe!
You’re welcome!
Maybe I am Dutch?! I am a bit of a “cheese-head!” Lovely recipe and I love the little pots
Well you never know.. maybe you have some Dutch ancestors somewhere down the line..
Beautiful pasta casserole, Simone! I had to laugh when you mentioned kaaskoppen… I wasn’t aware of that particular insult, but it’s true that Belgians still often make jokes about the Dutch and their cheese – even though we eat a lot of cheese ourselves, including Dutch cheese! Heck, Gouda is one of my favourite sandwich cheeses. I’m sure the Dutch have a lot of names for the Belgians as well… maybe something related to beer, or chocolate?
I’m sitting here thinking really hard if we have one particular name for the Belgians… Beer or chocolate would definitely be a logical choice but I can’t think of anything!
Mmm, I’m gonna ask around.. I might have missed something!
You always make me laugh, Simone! But did you know that the folks in Wisconsin are also called Cheeseheads? And I think they like it! I love cheese – maybe not as much as my French husband and son – but love it, and the strong ones are only better. This is a great and easy dish, similar to what we throw together for comfort food. Eggplant, tomatoes and cheese are perfect companions!
hehehe. I could probably be called a cheesehead myself! I loooove cheese on anything!! Sweet or savoury! Eggplants are my favourite vegetables and this looks so scrumptious!
i thought my husband was the only person on earth who dint care for cheese, cant tell u how glad i am to know there are others! i LOVE cheese too… baked cheesy pasta happens to be amongst my most fav food of all
lovely clicks