Six smart cooking tips to make the best baked pasta of your life

Baked pasta doesn’t even have to try to be a cosy, comforting dish. There’s already the bubbling sauce, the gooey cheese, the sweet smell of pasta wafting through the house. But here’s the truth: A few bites of that rich warmth can lull you to sleep. (And why do that when there’s more pasta to eat?)

So, the next time you’re making a baked pasta, incorporate one of these upgrades, which will keep things interesting – but not too interesting.

Add meatballs

Finding a meatball in your baked pasta is like finding a nugget of cookie dough in your ice-cream: it adds surprise, something to dig around for and break up similar bites. While you could shape and sear off home-made meatballs, Katrina Meynink has a smart trick in her sausage, kale and tortellini pasta bake:chopping sausages into meatballs instead.

• Try Katrina Meynink’s cacio e pepe spaghetti and meatball pasta bake.

Add greens

Like lemon in a cream sauce or a side salad with a steak, greens in a baked pasta can cut richness. You’ll want to cook the greens to get rid of some of their water before they head into the oven, to avoid making your pasta runny. So blanch hardier vegetables such as broccoli or kale in the last few minutes of the pasta boiling or wilt tender greens like baby spinach into the warm sauce.

• Try Adam Liaw’s vegetarian stroganoff bake with mushrooms and spinach

Really, really undercook the pasta

Pasta can’t help but drink up a delicious sauce. As it bakes, it gorges until it’s way more than full. So if the pasta goes into the oven already soft, it will swell until it’s mushy. The easy solution is to undercook the pasta, knowing it will feast on more sauce later: go for two minutes less than the al dente timing listed on the package.

• Jamie Oliver’s butternut pumpkin and spinach pasta rotolo

Expand your cheese choices

When picking a cheese – or cheeses – consider how they’ll behave in the oven. The classic mix might be mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta, but the options don’t stop there. Fontina, cheddar and gruyere are good melting cheeses. Cottage, cream or goat’s cheese can go creamy, and feta and grated halloumi provide a salty kick. Choosing your mozzarella wisely can also make an impact: it has less water, so low-moisture mozzarella has an easier time browning and melting.

• Try Jessica Brook’s creamy four-cheese pasta with sweet leeks

Make it hotter and faster

Many recipes instruct you to bake the pasta covered for a long stint, then uncover the pasta to brown the top. But all that time away from your watchful eye can cause it to dry out or turn to mush. For more control over the result, bake the pasta at a higher temperature (about 230 degrees) for a shorter amount of time (10-15 minutes). That’s just enough time and heat for the elements to meld, the cheeses to melt and the top to brown.

• Try Katrina Meynink’s three-cheese lasagne with slow-cooked bolognese sauce

Let it rest for at least 10 minutes

It’s understandable to want to dig into baked pasta the second it’s ready. But spoon it onto your plate and it’ll run like lava — a molten-hot slip and slide. By letting the pasta rest for 10 minutes, the structure of the pasta will set. The sauce will cling to the noodles, the cheese will stay put, and the temperature will lower so you don’t scorch your tongue.