Pasta al Forno (Baked Pasta) and my new Miele Dishwasher

Pasta al Forno wilI no longer fill me with dread with the thought of soaking and washing of the crusty dish afterwards. Now, my Miele dishwasher does the dirty work for me!

UPDATED August 29,2017 (edited to add up to date information in italics)

The Pasta al Forno (Baked Pasta) recipe follows, as I first have to tell you about my new Miele dishwasher.

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Remember I told you I was getting a new Miele dishwasher? Well, it’s now installed and I’ve been using it daily for a few weeks. I’ve gone directly from dishwasher hell to dishwasher heaven, and I’m soooo happy! Guess what? Over three years later, I’m honestly still as elated with my Miele today as I was then!

Disclosure: Miele agreed to provide me with a dishwasher so that I can review  it and inform my readers about my experience as a Miele owner. I have been using the dishwasher and am honestly reporting my findings here; and as always, my opinions are solely my own.*

Where do I begin?

Do I tell you how elated I am that I no longer have to rewash dishes once they come out of the dishwasher? You must understand, this was a repeated occurrence with my Bosch dishwasher. Do I explain that seeing my glasses come out so sparkling clean gives me so much joy? When I am alone, I find myself wanting to find someone so I can show them how perfect they look? Or should I tell you that we forget the dishwasher is running sometimes because it’s so quiet? These are all novelties to us. I still find joy in unloading the dishwasher full of CLEAN dishes. 

The third rack is surprisingly awesome!

Oh, don’t even get me started about the third rack at the very top of the dishwasher: I have to admit, I was skeptical about not having the cutlery basket in the bottom, but that’s so 90s!

My least favorite part of unloading my old dishwasher was putting all the cutlery back in the drawer, but now it’s so organized! I just grab the teaspoons together, then the spoons, forks etc., and when I get to the cutlery drawer, they’re ready to go into their respective slots! I love it the third rack, and it saves time!

If anyone is having second thoughts about a third rack, please don’t! It’s one of the best features in a dishwasher!

These are just a few of my favorite things about my new Miele, but I don’t want to lose you by waxing poetic about a dishwasher, so I’m going to show you why I love my new Miele. I’m just going to give you a fabulous recipe at the same time: Pasta al Forno, or Baked Pasta.

As much as I love this recipe, the one thing I don’t like about it is how difficult the dish is to wash. There was no way I could put a crusted dish with baked-on, melted cheese, pasta and tomato sauce in my old dishwasher. I would have to soak it overnight and then scrub it with a brush, and use baking soda to get it perfectly clean, but no more.

I have taken before and after photos of my pasta al forno dish which you’ll see below, just to give you an idea of how well my Miele dishwasher works. Here’s my simple and delicious recipe below–it’s a good one!

Pasta al Forno (Baked Pasta)

Ingredients

• 1 lb high quality pasta (I used De Cecco orecchiette, short penne or rigatoni also work well)
• tomato sauce made with mini-meatballs (or tomato sauce and mini-meatballs, or omit for vegetarian)
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese, diced
• grated Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano cheese

Note: when making the meatballs, I like to use a combination of meat: I used organic ground beef, ground pork and ground chicken. Recipe can be found HERE

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box, minus 4 minutes. For example, the orecchiette cooking time was 11 minutes so I cooked them for 7 minutes. Reserve at least 1 1/2 cups of pasta water when you drain it.

Add some sauce and meatballs and some of the pasta water and mix well. Continue to add the sauce and water until it is no longer dry, and has a good amount of sauce (I added over one cup of water). Remember, the pasta is still undercooked and will absorb quite a lot of liquid.

Toss in the diced mozzarella, stir well and put into a baking dish.

Bake in a preheated 400°F degree oven for 20 minutes, covered with a lid. Remove the lid, sprinkle with grated cheese. Continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how crispy you want the top of the pasta.

Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly, then serve.

Now to the baking dish: just to prove how awesome my Miele dishwasher (Futura Diamond model) is, I actually let the dish sit overnight. The next morning, I ran the “rinse and hold” feature (13 minutes) as I had more dishes to add later. I then ran the “pots and pans” cycle. I’m saving so much water not having to rinse my dishes (and this was the very first time I’d used the rinse and hold cycle). This is really critical since the city and state are really enforcing water conservation during this horrific drought we’re having. Miele dishwashers’ electric costs are low, too.

Pasta al Forno dish “Before Miele”

Pasta al Forno dish “After Miele” (unretouched)

If you follow me regularly, I would guess that you trust me implicitly, but the rest of you, I’m just telling you, I know these results are hard to believe, but it’s true. This is why I love my Miele dishwasher so much.

It does seem to good to be true, but like I said, I’m in dishwasher heaven!

For more information on Miele dishwashers and other appliances, click HERE. I wish I would have invested in a Miele dishwasher 10 years ago. I can see now it would have saved me so much grief, time, money and water.

Over the past three years, I’ve seen quite a few threads on Facebook asking about dishwasher recommendations. I see the Bosch name a lot (and I cringe). Even if you are a Bosch fan, I have to emphasize one important point: what is the life expectancy of your Bosch? My technician told me 11 years, which is exactly when mine died. Miele, on the other hand is 20 years. If you do the math, the cost of a Miele doesn’t seem so expensive anymore, does it?

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Pasta al Forno (Baked Pasta) and my new Miele Dishwasher

Yield: 6 servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

A quality Italian recipe for baked pasta. No premade jars of sauce, "Italian Seasoning or fake cheese involved.

Print

Ingredients

• 1 lb high quality pasta (I used De Cecco orecchiette, short penne or rigatoni also work well)
• tomato sauce made with mini-meatballs (or tomato sauce and mini-meatballs, or omit for vegetarian)
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese, diced
• grated Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano cheese

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box, but drain the water, reserving at least 1 1/2 cups, 4 minutes before the end of the suggested cooking time (for example, the orechiette cooking time was 11 minutes and I cooked them for 7 minutes).
2. Add some sauce and meatballs and some of the pasta water and mix well. Continue to add the sauce and water until it is no longer dry, and has a good amount of sauce (I added over one cup of water; remember the pasta is still undercooked and will absorb quite a bit of liquid).
3. Toss in the diced mozzarella, stir well and put into a baking dish.
4. Bake in a preheated 400F degree oven for 20 minutes, covered with a lid. Remove the lid, sprinkle with grated cheese, and continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how crispy you want the top of the pasta.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly, then serve.

Notes

Note: when making the meatballs, I like to use a combination of meat: I used organic ground beef, ground pork and ground chicken. Recipe on my blog, as well as homemade tomato sauce recipe.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: small bowl
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 381Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 46mgSodium: 648mgCarbohydrates: 42gFiber: 4gSugar: 4gProtein: 19g

Did you make this recipe?

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*Miele agreed to provide me with a dishwasher in exchange for my review and posts on my site. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone, and as always, I only recommend quality products and services that I truly believe in and would purchase and use myself. There have been no conditions stating that the reviews must be positive; I am disclosing this in compliance with FTC regulations.

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