SpaghettiOs-Inspired Anelletti Al Forno Recipe

While the appearance of this pasta dish might take you back to your younger days, you will be happy to know that there's nothing childish about the flavor of this dish. In this recipe, we bring grown-up flavor to a childhood classic. Anelletti pasta, those fun little rings that fill the cans of SpaghettiOs, are perfect for an easy-to-serve and easier-to-eat baked pasta dish rich with real Italian flavor.

To flavor the ring-shaped anelletti pasta, this recipe uses a quick sausage ragù, made in the classic style. Italian sausage is cooked with plenty of aromatic vegetables and herbs as well as white wine, broth, and, of course, tomato. Once the pasta is nicely sauced, it is spread in a baking dish and topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, dried herbs, and olive oil. A quick trip to the oven finishes the job, bringing the pasta together and turning that topping a beautiful, golden brown.

This dish might just be a perfect combination of nostalgic and modern. It has the look of those treasured childhood meals, but the flavor is much better suited to your adult palate. The spoonable spaghetti of your childhood may have tasted pretty great at the time, but some things are better left in our memories.

For the sausage ragu in this recipe, you will need Italian sausage, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, parsley, tomato paste, white wine, beef broth, crushed tomatoes, and bay leaves. To finish the baked pasta, you will need anelletti, panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, Italian herb mix, and olive oil. Once you have all of these ingredients, you are ready to begin cooking.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Bring a large, heavy-bottomed pot to medium-high heat and add the sausage. Cook, breaking apart with a spatula, for 5 minutes.

Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and parsley to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes.

Next, stir in the tomato paste and cook for around 2 minutes, until it begins to stick to the bottom of the pot.

Deglaze the pot with the wine, being sure to scrape the bottom to release the fond.

Add the broth, crushed tomatoes, and bay leaves, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.

Add the anelletti to the boiling water and boil for around 10 minutes, until al dente.

When the pasta is finished cooking, scoop it directly into the pot with the sauce.

Stir the pasta and sauce together, and scoop this into a 9x13-inch baking dish.

In a bowl, combine the panko breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan, and Italian herbs. Mix these together, then pour over the olive oil and mix again.

Spread the breadcrumbs topping evenly over the pasta.

Bake the pasta for 20-25 minutes, until the breadcrumb topping is a beautiful golden brown.

Rest the pasta 10 minutes before serving.

When it comes to Italian food, or really any cuisine with its own language, there are certain phrases that you'll see pop up again and again. Over time, you figure out from context that fagioli means beans, and aglio means garlic. But what does the "al forno" in this recipe title actually mean?

If you haven't guessed it yet, the phrase "al forno" translates to "from the oven." Anelletti is the name of the ring-shaped pasta used in this dish, while "al forno" indicates that it is baked before serving. Just one of the many Italian phrases it's good to know when perusing a menu.

But does that mean you can use the phrase "al forno" for any pasta that comes out of the oven? It sure does. That wonderful pasta dish we call baked ziti would be translated to ziti al forno. Lasagna from the oven would be lasagna al forno. Some other popular al forno dishes include things like eggplant Parmesan, farinata (chickpea pancakes), and polpettone (meatloaf), among many others.

In this recipe, we mix the anelletti pasta with a pot of sausage ragù, spread it out in a baking dish, top it with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese, and bake it until beautifully browned and crisp on top. It's a delicious dish, but it's also one with plenty of room for customization. If you like your pasta extra saucy, you could easily increase the quantity of crushed tomatoes in the ragù. Or, to add a bit more sauce without increasing the acidity, try adding a bit of classic bechamel sauce like you would to a lasagna. This duo of sauces is the best of both worlds: tangy tomato and creamy bechamel.

Another way to upgrade this recipe (that no one would bat an eye at) would be to add a little bit more cheese. In this recipe, we've gone light on the cheese, just a bit of Parmesan in the topping, but it is tough to overdo cheese with a baked pasta recipe. A bit of mozzarella mixed into the pasta or the topping would add some welcome stretchy, melty goodness.

Or you could take it back to tradition. While it may seem unusual for the baked pastas in the U.S., anelletti al forno in Sicily often features ham, hard-boiled eggs, and peas mixed into the filling. However you choose to make this baked pasta — whether you choose to follow our recipe closely or add your own flair — it is sure to be delicious.