CHEESY CONCHIGLIE PASTA AL FORNO (BAKED PASTA SHELLS).

Pasta al forno or baked pasta is a staple. Apart from being delicious, baked pasta is a great way to feed a large number and can often be prepared in advance! The classic Italian pasta al forno is made with a meat ragu, béchamel and cheese. However, there are hundreds of other recipes that fall into the pasta al forno category.

Some baked pasta recipes take a while to prepare, especially if using a meat sauce. Others are pretty simple and fast! This cheesy conchiglie pasta al forno is definitely one of the simpler ways to make baked pasta. But simpler doesn’t mean lacking in taste. This is seriously yummy, cheesy and creamy!

PASTA AL FORNO BIANCA (WHITE).

This recipe is what Italians call pasta al forno bianca, meaning white baked pasta. In other words, no tomatoes! Many white baked pasta dishes contain meat such as ham, sausage or ground meat.  This cheesy conchiglie pasta al forno is meatless and the sauce is really just béchamel with cheese and eggs. So super easy to make!

THE CHEESE.

I made the béchamel sauce myself, but to make this cheesy baked pasta even faster you can use a ready-made white sauce. The cheese in this recipe is grated grana or Parmigiano Reggiano plus fontina. Fontina is my favourite Italian melting cheese. It comes from the Val d’Aosta and is the cheese Italians use in their version of cheese fondue! So, as you can imagine it melts into a wonderful creamy cheese sauce!

However, if you can’t find fontina, you can use another good melting cheese such as mild provolone, gruyere or gouda!

THE PASTA.

For this baked pasta shells recipe I used dried conchiglie made with eggs. Conchiglie are middle sized pasta shells. Large  pasta shells which are usually filled and baked are called conchiglione or lumaconi. Then there are very small pasta shells, conchigliette, which are great in soups! You can read more about these different pasta shells.

Conchiglie are a great choice for this cheesy baked pasta as the shells get filled with the sauce, making every mouthful super delicious! But, if you want to use a different type of pasta, then I’d recommend pasta . to bake and serve this pasta al forno bianca in individual terracotta oven dishes. I got these dishes a while back when I bought and cooked jumbo pasta shells . Those shells are said to be the biggest pasta in the world and each terracotta pot only takes one pasta . Otherwise just use a normal oven dish. Whichever way you serve this cheesy conchiglie pasta al forno, everyone will love it!