Here’s a post I’ve been sitting on for a year now. Yes, a year. I know, it’s crazy. But by the time I decided to write about it last year, tomato season had already ended. And I just didn’t want to torture you with this wonderful recipe in the middle of the winter when juicy, sweet and bright-red tomatoes are nowhere to be found.
I was planning to share photos from my recent trip to Selimiye, a small village on the Mediterranean coast in southwest Turkey, but those can wait.
The recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s book “Jamie’s Italy”. It is such a simple dish to prepare. Especially if you have a freezer full of homemade tomato sauce.
The recipe calls for Parmesan, but I’ve used another favorite of mine: Aged Gouda. It is a rich, flaky cheese that melts smoothly on your tongue. And after it’s tossed with hot pasta and baked in the oven, you’ll think someone opened the oven door midway through and spread salted butter on each Gnocchetti.
Enjoy.
Recipe adapted from “Jamie’s Italy”
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1+1/4 lb. pasta (I’ve used Gnocchetti)
- 2.5 cups homemade tomato sauce (1/3 of this recipe)
- 1/2 lb. aged Gouda (or Parmesan) cheese, grated
- 3 balls (about 4 oz. each) fresh Mozzarella cheese, sliced
- 20-30 fresh basil leaves
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Method
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook your pasta al dente.
- Drain well and toss with half of the tomato sauce and a handful of aged Gouda.
- Rub a 10×15 inch baking pan with olive oil and put a layer of pasta, followed by some tomato sauce, a handful of grated aged Gouda and 1 sliced-up Mozzarella ball, then repeat layers until you have used all the ingredients, ending with a layer of aged Gouda cheese on top.
- Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until the top layer is golden and bubbling.
- Let cool for 15 minutes, lay the basil leaves on top and serve warm.
A Simply delicious & aromatic recipe that smell & look all summer. Here I am trying to get rid of my summers from my drafts before summer is gone…
It looks so good I can almost smell it. And the pictures are very nice on the Turkish side, no translation necessary.
Simple and delicious, I can tell. I shall make it tonight. Once again you send us a recipe that tantalizes the palate!
How I love baked pasta dishes. The gouda substitution sounds sensational. Delicious and colorful comforting meal.
Adore this recipe with all these ingredients that makes a flavorful and colorful one!
Definitively delicious..sending to twitter in a few moments….
Cheers!
Gera
Welcome back!
Love the beautiful color in this post. And what a great recipe!
My mouth is watering!
I turned to my soon to be hubby and said…I want to make that now!
This will be on my “to make” recipe!
you’ve got my mouth-watering with this one! looks fabulous!
Nice to see U back!!!
Lovely, lovely recipe. I am so excited about actually tasting tomatoes again that I’m scheming to use them in everything.
This post just made me far too hungry! 🙂
i love jamie oliver’s recipes too. simple and tasty!
i’m sure your adapted version is definitely delicious too!
I love that this recipe is simple and uses the fresh ingredients. In my opinion that’s what great cooking is about. I also love that your tomatoes have blemishes on them. I am so sick of food photography that uses only perfect looking produce. Oftentimes fresh, organic stuff is not perfect looking. Real bananas have spots, tomatoes have cracks, mangoes might be bird pecked. My mom would always say, if the bugs and birds are eating them that’s a sure sign that it’s the best and tastiest produce. Beware of the stuff that the critters won’t touch!
Wizzythestick – Totally agree with your mom 🙂
This looks divine! I love Jamie’s recipes and this looks like a great one 🙂
Simple and delicious looking! I would love this…I have had a similar, or perhaps the same under a different name, cheese in the Netherlands…yummy!
I love such simple yet delicious recipes! And using Aged Goude instead of the overused Parmesan sounds like a great idea too!
This is exactly what I love…simple and good. Food doesn’t need difficult ways to be prepared to make me happy. Our blog is exacrly about this philosophy. Thanks for sharing this although I’m so hungry now and unfortunately in the office. I’ll try it tonight!
Cenk, The classical combination of pasta and tomato sauce is perfect in any guise, but your addition of aged gouda is interesting! I can just imagine that its roasted apple and hazelnut flavor would compliment the acidity of tomatoes perfectly.
Are you familiar with Yemek ve Kültür, a magazine published by Musa Da?deviren? If so, what is your opinion, does it have recipes or mostly just articles ? I was browsing their website, and the table of contents looks interesting, but the subscription is about $US 132. So, I figured that before I go ahead and splurge I might ask your opinion, if by any chance you came across it. Thank you in advance.
Victoria – I am familiar with the magazine, although I can’t say I buy every issue. It mostly has articles about the history of food, which is great for me as I learn a lot from it. There are only 5-10 recipes per issue. If you’re curious to know how stuffed zucchini blossoms were prepared during the Ottoman Empire, then buy it.
Thank you for not torturing us during non-tomato season! 🙂 This looks divine. I have been enjoying a sloe of pasta dishes lately and this one might be next!
Just one word: Perfect!
Cenk, belatedly, but thank you for your comments! It sounds perfect for me. I recently have been perusing through Ottoman era recipes, many of which are are very adaptable to the modern kitchen. I will definitely look into getting a subscription. And thank you again for mentioning Ciya, because it was thanks to you that I discovered it when in Istanbul. 🙂
Looks delicious, I have a ton of tomatoes I need to get rid of, so this will definitely be helpful. thanks for sharing.
I do not eat tomatoes. Especially when raw. The story behind is about a little girl going to this blue cruise vacation with her family and their precious italian friends who can’t properly cook pilav–long story. I do cook though. My friends always ask how is it possible to cook without eating tomatoes. Well, these photos are so real they made a court-circuit somewhere in my brain and somehow reminiscented me of sunny and happy days in Ada(our “Mansion” days where I cook and we feast) when we grow our tomatoes and the incredibly tantalizing “perfume” of tomatoes and their plants and now i want them and i want them now-in the middle of winter! 🙂 You’ve done to me what those famous Madeleines had done to Proust a century ago.
İpek – That last bit means the world to me. Thank you!
Mmm…no tomatoes quite yet, but I do have many plants growing. We’ll see. In the meantime, store-bought may just have to suffice. Sounds fabulous.