The same sauce as the pizzas
Baked Pasta
Baked ziti and lasagne from the same sauce as the pizzas, finished under the mozzarella in a small steel pan.
This is not a pasta restaurant and we are not going to pose as one. What we have is a very good tomato sauce, a lot of mozzarella and an oven that runs at 550°F, and those three things make excellent baked pasta and would make mediocre versions of most other Italian dishes. So there are two things on this part of the menu rather than fifteen.
The ziti is undercooked deliberately by about three minutes before it is sauced, because it will finish in the oven and pasta cooked twice to the correct time is pasta cooked too much. The lasagne is made in full trays every morning and cut to order; a portion cut from a rested tray holds together, and a portion cut from a tray straight out of the oven does not.
Both come out with a browned, blistered mozzarella top, because they go into the pizza oven rather than a conventional one and that is what a pizza oven does to cheese.
What goes on it
The sauce
The same crushed plum tomato base as the pizzas, cooked down with garlic and basil for the pasta.
The ziti
Boiled three minutes short, sauced, mixed with ricotta, topped with mozzarella.
The lasagne
Flat sheets, meat ragù, béchamel and mozzarella, built in trays each morning and rested before cutting.
The top
Whole-milk mozzarella, browned and blistered in the pizza oven.
How it is made here
Pasta undercooked first
Three minutes short of done. It finishes in the oven.
Assembled in steel pans
Individual pans for portions, full trays for catering.
Into the pizza oven
Twelve to fourteen minutes at 550°F until the top blisters.
Rested before cutting
Lasagne especially. Cut hot, it slumps.
Baked Pasta — what it costs
- Baked ziti$15
- Lasagne$17
- Family tray, serves 6$54
Prices include every topping listed above. Extras are $3 for vegetables and $4 for meats. Prices change when our costs do; the menu here is the menu in the shop.
Before you order this
A shared flour kitchen, and what that rules out. Our kitchen handles wheat flour in open air all day, along with milk, eggs, soy, tree nuts and fish. Flour becomes airborne every time a dough ball is opened, and it settles on every surface in the room, including the peels, the oven floor, the cutting board and the wheel. We can tell you what we put on a pizza, and we will tell you honestly. We cannot tell you that anything leaving this kitchen is free of an allergen, and we will not say it. If a reaction would send you to hospital, this is not a safe kitchen for you, and we would far rather say so than take the order.
The kitchen is one room. Every pizza here is opened on the same bench, baked on the same floor and cut with the same wheel, and that is true of this one as much as any other. The pages on allergens and cross-contact and vegetarian, vegan and dietary questions set out plainly what we can and cannot tell you, including the things most shops leave you to assume.
The rest of the menu
Other things worth ordering
Heroes & Subs
Seeded rolls baked here each morning, filled to order — the Italian combination, chicken parm, meatball, or aubergine.
From $12
Salads
A chopped Italian salad with an oregano vinaigrette, and a caprese when the tomatoes are worth it — which is not all year, and we will say so.
From $12
Wings
Baked in the pizza oven rather than fried, then tossed — hot, mild, or garlic-parmesan.
From $11Asked at the counter
Baked Pasta — questions
Is the lasagne made here?
Yes, in trays every morning. It is not a bought-in product reheated.
Can I get a family tray for tonight?
Usually yes if you telephone by mid-afternoon. It serves six to eight and travels well. Same-day is not guaranteed on a Friday or Saturday.
Is there a vegetarian lasagne?
Not as standard. We will make a roasted vegetable one as a family tray with a day's notice.
Twelve to fifteen minutes, and worth the wait
Order a pie
Telephone the shop and we will tell you honestly how long the kitchen is running before you commit to anything. Collection is always quicker than delivery and the pizza is always better for it. If you are ordering for a crowd, the catering page has the trays and the notice we need.