Pasta al forno

Simple pasta gratins such as this one are popular in the south, from Campania to Sicily. Cooked tubular pasta is tossed with a rich meat sauce and then put into an oiled or buttered baking dish. Some are topped with sliced hard-boiled eggs; others call for spooning the sauced pasta over a layer of cooked eggplant slices. The dish is then topped with cream sauce and grated cheese and baked. The beauty of this dish is that it can be assembled ahead of time and refrigerated for up to 2 days be