Rigatoni Pasta Pie

More About This Recipe

• Can you even begin to believe what you're looking at? Is it pasta? Is it a deep dish pizza pie? Is it ridiculous? Is it being summoned to your belly right about now? Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. Before we go on, I'm telling you now, this wasn't my original idea. But when we saw it over on the Noble Pig , all of my lids flipped at once, I experienced blindness and heart murmurs, and strange utterances escaped my lips, along with tiny rivers of drool. It had to be done. I veered from her recipe just a tad, replacing beef with turkey, and adding crushed red pepper flakes for a good kick in the pants. Grab some rigatoni, some ground turkey, Muir Glen whole peeled tomatoes, garlic, crushed red pepper, parmesan and mozzarella cheese. To crush your own tomatoes, dump them in a big bowl and crush them with your hands. It feels awesome, yes. It looks weird, sorry. You can also buy tomatoes that are already crushed, but you'll miss out on all the squishy fun. Then get your turkey all browned up in a pan with the garlic and crushed red pepper. And salt! Next you'll add the tomatoes and simmer for about 20 minutes. While you're at it (see, you'll do all this at the same time, and your sauce will simmer while you prepare the pie.), cook that rigatoni until it's slightly underdone, maybe 3 minutes under what the box says. Then drain it under some cool water. Toss the rigatoni with a cup of Parmesan and pack it into a springform pan with noodles standing on end. They might be different heights, and that's okay. Once it's all packed in the pan, pour the sauce on top. And then as best you can, try and push the meat sauce down into the pasta holes to fill the noodles. Once it's all baked and cheesy, let it set up for about 15 minutes before removing the springform pan and slicing. Voila! I laughed so hard when I took mine out of the pan. You have GOT to try this.
• There's lots more pasta love to pass around! Sausage, Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells Copycat Noodles and Company™ Mac and Cheese Million-Dollar Manicotti Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe Butternut Squash, Hazelnut and Fontina Lasagna