This baked pasta is one of Malta’s most loved traditional foods! Pasta is pre-cooked then mixed in a rich tomato-meat sauce combined with cheese and eggs and baked until the top gets super crunchy.
Maltese Baked Macaroni
Ingredients
Main:
Topping:
Method
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Preheat oven to 190C/375F.
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Cook pasta in salted water but not completely as it will continue baking in the oven.
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In a large deep pan, heat a little olive oil and cook the onions. When they start to soften add the crushed garlic and cook for another minute.
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Add the ground beef, let it cook until no longer pink. Once ready, add the corned beef, herbs, spices, tomato paste, few dashes Worcestershire sauce and gravy stock pot or crumbled cube.
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Cook stirring continuously until corned beef is well incorporated.
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Add the whole tomatoes, sugar and season with salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil crushing the tomatoes.
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Cover and simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes, until sauce thickens. Stir occasionally.
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Transfer the cooked pasta to a large baking dish and mix in the prepared tomato-meat sauce.
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Stir in the cheese and beaten eggs.
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You can either stir in the hard-boiled eggs or remove half of the pasta and crumble the eggs in between the pasta, (I prefer to do it this way so the eggs will stay whole in pieces and not get crushed as they are mixed through with the pasta).
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Top with grated cheddar cheese, parmesan and freshly ground pepper.
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Bake in oven for about 1 hour, until cheese on top is melted and pasta is golden and crunchy.
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Enjoy!
Note
- Recipe can also be made without the corned beef but I would substitute with ground beef mixed with ground pork.