Here's my Christmas Baked Pasta.

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 small onion chopped
1 lb. lean stew beef
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 large can of diced tomatoes
1 large can of pureed tomatoes
¾ cup water
½ cup red or white cooking wine (optional)

For the pasta mix:
1 lb. rigatoni or penne cooked al dente
1 small container of ricotta cheese
2 ½ cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese


In a large pot over medium high heat, put oil, beef and onion. Let cook for about 10 minutes stirring every few minutes. Add salt, pepper, both cans of tomatoes, wine and water. Let simmer, covered, for about 1 ½ to 2 hours on VERY low heat. You need to stir the sauce every 15 minutes. If it’s boiling too hard, lower the flame. It is only supposed to plop every few seconds.

When the sauce is done you can continue on and make the pasta.

You can use any pasta you like pasta with ridges usually is better.

Cook a whole box (1 lb.) of pasta in abundant salted water minus 3 minutes what the box instructions indicate so you have very al dente pasta.

Drain. Put it back into the pot you cooked it in. Add 4 ladles of the sauce you made and stir. Add the rest of the ingredients, one by one, listed under “pasta mix” above except for ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (to sprinkle on top before baking).
Mix well being careful not to break the pasta.

With a ladle, scoop the pasta in assorted baking pans (you can probably make two 9x13 pans or one very big lasagna size pan). Pour a few ladles of sauce on top. Use all the sauce on each of the pans.
Sprinkle some extra mozzarella cheese if you want.
Cover with foil.

At this point, you can either freeze them or bake them in a 425 degree oven for about 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, remove foil and bake an additional 10-12 minutes or until the top reaches desired brownness.