Baked rice with meat sauce is a very rich main course, an alternative to the more classic lasagna, equally tasty and easy to make. We can prepare Neapolitan or Bolognese meat sauce; in this particular recipe, I made neither, but a simpler sauce with mixed minced beef and pork, with a much shorter cooking time and equally aromatic and delicious. Baked rice with meat sauce is the perfect recipe for Sunday lunches and festive days like Christmas, Easter, etc…. Our guests will lick their lips and we will impress with this important dish, which can also be prepared in advance, just like lasagna. The next day the rice is even better; just reheat it in the oven at 300°F for about 20 minutes.
This recipe is also ideal as a recycling idea, to use up any leftover sauce.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, and Spring
Ingredients
- 12 oz Mixed minced meat
- 1 Celery stalk
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Golden onion
- 1/2 clove Garlic
- 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp Dry white or red wine
- to taste Fine salt
- to taste Ground black pepper
- 2.2 lbs Tomato puree
- 1.3 cups Rice for timbales
- 8.8 oz Smoked provola cheese (also lactose-free)
- to taste Mix of Grana Padano and Pecorino cheese
- to taste Coarse salt
Preparation
Let’s start preparing our mixed minced meat sauce (beef and pork).
In this recipe, the sauce needs to be very fluid for optimal and perfect cooking of the rice.
If the tomato puree used is very thick, we will also add a glass of water; otherwise, water won’t be necessary. Moreover, the sauce will cook for a shorter time than usual (otherwise it would thicken too much, leaving the rice undercooked) but despite this, it will be lip-smacking good.
In a large pot, gently sauté finely chopped carrot, celery, onion, and garlic in 2 generous tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over low heat.
As soon as the mixture starts sizzling, turn up the heat and add the meat. Stir frequently to ensure it browns evenly for 3-4 minutes, drying out completely.
Then, pour in the wine (dry white; or red if you want to give the sauce a more intense and robust flavor as I did), let the alcohol evaporate, season with fine salt, ground pepper, stir and add the tomato puree (and water if necessary).
Let the meat absorb the flavors for a couple of minutes, cover the pot, leaving a crack open and let the sauce simmer on the smallest burner over medium heat for about 40 minutes. Now let’s focus on the baking dish and cheeses.
Lightly oil or butter the baking dish we will use.
Grate the Grana and Pecorino cheese, in equal parts or according to our taste.
Dice the provola after removing the outer “smoked skin” of the cheese. Keep aside a little grated cheese and provola to sprinkle on top of the rice before baking.
Bring water to a boil for the rice. As soon as it boils, add coarse salt, wait a few seconds and pour in the rice which we will cook for only 4 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
After 4 minutes, drain the rice immediately and add it directly to the pot with the sauce. Turn off the sauce, add the mix of grated cheeses, diced provola, and perfectly mix all the ingredients to combine them.
Pour the seasoned rice into the baking dish, sprinkle with the cheese we set aside, level it and bake, at mid-height, for about 20/25 minutes.
The rice is ready when it has almost completely absorbed the sauce and the grains begin to be visible on the surface.
Every oven has different times and cooking methods, so I recommend checking our rice with meat sauce often.
In my case, the dish was cooked in a static gas oven with heat coming only from the bottom. If the oven, however, cooks simultaneously from above and below, I recommend covering the surface of the baking dish with parchment paper for the last 10 minutes of cooking, as excessive heat from above would dry out the rice, making it less pleasant to eat.
