Baked rice with meat sauce is a very rich main dish, an alternative to the more classic lasagna, equally tasty and easy to make. Baked rice with meat sauce is the perfect recipe for Sunday lunch and festive days like Christmas, Easter, etc…. Our guests will lick their lips, and we will shine with this important course, which can also be prepared in advance, just like lasagna. The day after, 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 meat sauce.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 12 oz Mixed ground meat
- 1 Celery stalk
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Golden onion
- 1/2 clove Garlic
- 2 tbsps Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsps Dry white or red wine
- to taste Fine salt
- to taste Ground pepper
- 2.2 lbs Tomato puree
- 1 cup Rice for timbales
- 1 cup Smoked provola cheese (also lactose-free)
- to taste Mix of Grana and Pecorino cheese
- to taste Coarse salt
Preparation
Let’s start preparing our mixed meat sauce (beef and pork). In this recipe, it’s essential that the sauce is very fluid, for optimal and perfect rice cooking. If the tomato puree used is very thick, we will also add a glass of water; otherwise, the 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 raw, but despite this, it will be lip-smacking good.
In a large pan, slowly sauté a very fine mince of carrot, celery, onion, and garlic in 2 generous tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over low heat. As soon as the mince starts sizzling, raise the heat and add the meat. Stirring often, allow it to brown evenly for 3/4 minutes, drying completely. Then, pour in the wine (dry white; or red if you want to give the sauce a stronger and more robust flavor as I did), let the alcohol evaporate, adjust with fine salt, ground pepper, mix and add the tomato puree (and water if necessary). Let the meat flavor for a couple of minutes, cover the pan, leaving a slit open, and let the sauce cook on the smallest burner over medium heat for about 40 minutes. Now let’s focus on the baking dish and the cheeses.
Lightly oil or butter the baking dish we will use.
Grate the Grana and Pecorino cheeses, in equal parts or according to our tastes.
Dice the provola cheese, after removing the external “smoked skin” of the cheese. Set aside some grated cheese and provola to sprinkle on the surface of the rice before baking it.
Bring the water for the rice to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, add coarse salt, wait a few seconds, and pour in the rice that we will cook for only 4 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
After 4 minutes, immediately drain the rice well and pour it directly into the pan 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 had set aside, level it, and bake it in the oven, 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. Since every oven has different times and cooking settings, I recommend frequently checking our rice with meat sauce and tasting it. In my case, the dish was cooked in a static gas oven with heat only from the bottom. If the oven simultaneously heats from the top and bottom, 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 the rice, making it less pleasant to eat.
