There are a couple of ways to make this very tasty casserole that was wicked popular back in the day around about the Panama Canal Zone; quick, pretty easy, and tasty: cook some pasta, top it with jarred sauce and black olives, sprinkle bread crumbs on top, then cheese, and bake.
Not so quick, still pretty darned simple, and very tasty: make a batch of your favorite sauce (like mebbe this one, ready in about 90 minutes), then assemble the casserole and bake.
Or, you can take three days and make a most excellent pasta casserole loaded three pigs pasta sauce, sliced kalamata olives, and shredded ten yeaar old Cheddar cheese.
Cheddar cheese?!?
Yeah, youbetcha!
INGREDIENTS
•1 lb linguini
•3 pigs pasta sauce
•2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
•1 cup sliced kalamata olives
•Olive oil
•Bread crumbs
Cook the pasta in salted water, then drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
Toss the pasta with the half cup of cooking water, then add the olives, cheese, and three cups of the three pigs sauce.
Lightly oil a 9×12 baking pan and turn the tossed pasta into it.
Add another two to three cups of the sauce over the top and set aside to cool.
When completely cooled, cover tightly with foil and stash in the fridge for a few hours or (always more better) overnight.
When ready to bake, bring casserole out of the fridge to warm up while you heat the oven to 350º.
Peel back the foil, sprinkle the pasta with the bread crumbs, then re-cover and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the cover and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn the oven off, and top with additional shredded cheese.
Loosely cover with foil, let rest for ten minutes, then return to the cooling oven for ten minutes.
Serve. We had ours with a bit of garlic bread and a nice salad.
Nice.
Admittedly, kinda involved, but trust me, well worth the wait. The overnight rest in the fridge allows the pasta to soak up a lot of flavor from the sauce, so that even tho’ it is not a ‘soupy’ casserole, every bite is tender and loaded with flavor.