Baked Rigatoni with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Create this Sunday dinner-worthy casserole made of garden-fresh sauce tossed with rigatoni (or penne, gemelli, or fusilli pasta) and draped with luscious melted cheese, all in well under an hour.

Submitted By: Vitamix

Yield:

7 cups (1.7 l)

Total Time:

15 Minutes

Print:

8.5x11

Difficulty:

Intermediate

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Ingredients

9 roma tomatoes, quartered
½ small (60 g) small onion, peeled
1½ carrots, halved
3 Tablespoons (45 g) tomato paste
1½ roasted cloves, peeled
¾ teaspoon dried oregano
¾ teaspoon dried basil
¾ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
¾ teaspoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt, optional
1 pound (455 g) rigatoni, uncooked
2 cups (225 g) Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions

Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Grease a 13x9-inch (33x23-cm) baking dish and set aside.
Place tomatoes, onions, carrots, tomato paste, garlic, oregano, basil, lemon juice, brown sugar, and salt into the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure lid.
Select Variable 1.
Start machine, slowly increase to Variable 10, then to High.
Blend for 5 minutes 35 seconds.
While the sauce is blending, cook the rigatoni according to package instructions. Drain.
Transfer the rigatoni to the prepared baking dish.
Top with 4 cups (960 ml) warm tomato sauce and 2 cups of shredded cheese.
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Nutrition Information

Serving Size	1 cup (285 ml)
Amount Per Servings
Calories	330
Total Fat	5
Saturated Fat	1
Cholesterol	0
Sodium	530
Total Carbohydrate	59
Dietary Fiber	4
Sugars	16
Protein	12

Baked Rigatoni with Fresh Tomato Sauce is rated 3.3 out of 5 by 3.

Rated 4 out of 5 by slk0711 from Just OK I love the ease of making sauce in the Vitamix but this tomato sauce was just OK. I think it was the tomatoes, they just weren't flavorful enough. The sauce had an "earthy" flavor which I didn't care for. I ended up using a full 4 oz can of tomato paste and about 2 tablespoons of sugar to cut down on the acidity of the tomatoes and it still was just ok. The next time I make it I'll wait until our home grown tomatoes are here. Still loving my Vitamix!!

Date published: 2018-03-05

Rated 4 out of 5 by Peggy U from Easy peasy Very simple dish. I made it exactly to the recipe first time and it was pretty good. Next time I cooked the onions for a couple of minutes in the microwave and used canned whole tomatoes and liked it even better. I like basic recipes like this because it’s so easy to make small changes and end up with great variety.

Date published: 2018-09-21

Rated 2 out of 5 by McGoogly from Overwhelmingly oniony! This was the first recipe I tried in my new Vitamix - it is certainly simple to make but both my husband and I had to leave the kitchen as it was blending and heating up because the onion fumes were so powerful they made our eyes hurt! Once the sauce was made it was also too oniony for our taste but the consistency of the sauce was great and I was so impressed by how hot it got. If I make the sauce again I think I would sauté the onions first so they lose a bit of their harshness.

Date published: 2019-04-28