Baked Pasta with 5 Cheeses
This recipe, originally from the Martha Stewart show, has been slightly modified by adding minced garlic. It's typically baked in a large dish instead of individual ramekins.
This recipe, originally from the Martha Stewart show, has been slightly modified by adding minced garlic. It's typically baked in a large dish instead of individual ramekins.
- Carbohydrate 62.6633283208796 g
- Cholesterol 88.7088799901961 mg
- Fat 24.6714218851911 g
- Fiber 3.21082600172291 g
- Protein 22.5310787345488 g
- Saturated Fat 14.9288860940053 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (200g)
- Sodium 535.029901385547 mg
- Sugar 59.4525023191567 g
- Trans Fat 1.61367896590243 g
- Calories 563 calories
Step-by-step
- Heat oven to 500?. Put small shells to a boil, cook partially, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Put cream, tomatoes, cheeses, salt and basil into a large bowl. Add pasta into mixture., toss well.
- Put pasta into a large deep baking dish. Bake at 500? to 15 minutes, or until pasta is tender and top is golden brown.
- Garnish with parmesan.
Boiling the medium pasta shells for precisely five minutes prevents structural collapse during the aggressive 500-degree oven phase. Starch granules inside the pasta must remain partially ungelatinized at the draining stage so they can absorb excess moisture from the heavy cream and tomato puree without turning mushy. Undercooking the pasta by half allows it to finish cooking directly in the dairy matrix.
Substitutions require careful fat balancing to mimic the melting properties of the original five cheeses. Swapping heavy cream for whole milk reduces the fat content by more than half, which breaks the emulsion and results in a watery sauce rather than a cohesive coating. Maintaining a high-fat dairy base prevents the protein strands in the romano, fontinella, and mozzarella from tightening into tough rubbery clumps under intense heat.
Fresh basil leaves contain volatile aromatic oils that degrade rapidly when exposed to prolonged heat, unlike dried herbs which require thermal energy to release their flavor compounds. Shredding the basil directly into the cold dairy mixture shields the delicate leaves from direct scorching. Preserved tomato puree contributes natural glutamates that amplify the savory characteristics of the gorgonzola without adding excess water weight.
Baking in a deep vessel at 500 degrees Fahrenheit creates rapid surface browning via the Maillard reaction while steaming the interior layers. Pull the dish from the oven the moment the cheese topping reaches a deep golden hue and the interior pasta yields completely to a fork.
