This 3-Ingredient Pasta Bake Is Your New Favorite Easy Meal — It's So Delicious

If you're an Alan Alda fan, chances are you were staying up late trying to catch episodes of M*A*S*H back in the day. If you're familiar with the beloved and widely adored actor and celebrity, then you perhaps also saw his 2018 appearance on "The Rachael Ray Show," where he rocked a classic red sweater and shared his favorite pasta dish with Rachael and her viewers. He doesn't take credit for this dish, though, and instead attributes it to "Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking" by Giuliano Bugialli. 

The pasta, which is a take on an Italian dish called "Maccheroni all'Ultima Moda 1841 alla Napoletana," is popular for its short list of ingredients and no-boil method — that's right, you can just pop the dry pasta right into the baking dish. All it takes is canned tomatoes, dried pasta (here are some of our tips for picking the best kinds at the store), and cheese, as well as a bit of patience while it bakes in the oven. The results are a heaping bowl of cozy, flavorful pasta that can help get you through the colder months ahead. 

Along with your three base ingredients, you'll want to find your favorite olive oil to use, as well as your preferred type of salt and pepper. To start, you'll put the dried pasta (Alan Alda suggests short-cut pasta) in your baking dish of choice, and you'll pour about ¾ cup of your olive oil all over the pasta (although Alda says he uses a bit less). Then you stir and let it sit in the olive oil for about 20 minutes. From there, you'll add your desired amount of salt and pepper (or other desired seasonings), and then add three cans of canned crushed tomatoes. Once it's all mixed together, go ahead and pop it into the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 to 45 minutes, mixing it a little bit every five minutes or so. Alda adds that he likes to put tin foil on top of his pasta before putting it in. Finally, top with Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

If you're looking for the best kind of canned tomatoes for this recipe, you can try fire-roasted for added flavor, or Ina Garten's tried-and-true favorite — San Marzano. With any type of canned food, canned tomatoes can be a bit high in sodium. If you're someone watching their sodium intake, you can look for low-sodium varieties as well. For the pasta, most types of short-cut pasta will do. Short-cut essentially just means the ones that aren't long strands, like spaghetti. Try penne, farfalle, or macaroni.