Pasta al forno

Pasta al forno, also known as timballo di pasta, is a typical dish of Italian cuisine, made of pasta covered with béchamel sauce, tomato sauce, and cheese, and cooked in the oven.

History

Baked pasta can ideally be divided in two big categories: the version with béchamel sauce was born in the Renaissance courts of the center and north, as a poorer variant of meat pies, from which probably derive very famous dishes such as Lasagna#Dish and Emilian cannelloni; the so-called pasta 'nfurnata or pasta 'ncasciata is instead one of the most typical dishes of Sicily and has its origins in very ancient traditions, essentially ascribable to the sumptuous timbales that Arabs introduced in Sicily during their domination dating back to the ninth century, to which, however, is due the name timballo itself.