Baked Mostaccioli

Ingredients

• 24 oz Fradiavolo Sauce
• 1 box Mostaccioli Rigati or Penne Rigati
• 8 oz shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Method

Cook the pasta to 2 minutes short of al dente — the box timing minus two — then drain without rinsing. The starch coating matters here. pasta releases starch during cooking, and that starch absorbs the sauce and binds the dish as it bakes rather than pooling at the bottom. If you cook to true al dente now, the final bake will turn it to mush.

Combine the hot pasta with the fra diavolo sauce in a large bowl and fold together until every strand is coated. The heat of the pasta will warm the sauce slightly; this is fine and actually speeds the cooking in the oven. Transfer to a baking dish — a 9 x 13-inch ceramic or metal dish works well — and spread into an even layer.

Cover the surface completely with mozzarella until no pasta shows through. This isn't vanity; the cheese acts as both a lid and a skin during oven-baking, trapping steam that finishes cooking the pasta while creating a cohesive structure. A thin layer will scorch before the pasta underneath reaches the right texture. Use roughly 8 ounces shredded, but don't stint — the goal is complete coverage.

Bake at 190°C for 18 to 22 minutes until the cheese surface colours in patches — burnished gold with some deeper brown at the edges — and you see sauce bubbling at the perimeter. This is your cue: the pasta has absorbed the liquid and the cheese-based sauce has set slightly. The centre should still have gentle movement when you shake the dish; carryover heat will firm it up as it rests.

Let the baked mostaccioli rest for 3 minutes before serving. This brief pause allows the starches to gel slightly and makes portioning cleaner. If the top feels soft rather than crisp, you've either under-baked or your oven runs cool — check with an oven thermometer and add 2 to 3 minutes next time. Serve directly from the dish while the cheese is still yielding.