Recipe: Tagliolini Colla Crocia, aka Ruota di Faraone

This is a delicious and simple meat and noodle kugel that was traditionally served by many Italian Jewish families on the Sabbath when the parsha of Beshalach is read (Shabbos Shira), as it includes the story of the Egyptian Pharaoh and his army being drowned in the Red Sea.

I'm including a really incredibly simple modern version here, and then a version of the original adapted from "The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews," by Edda Servi Machlin.

Simple modern version first:

Ingredients

1 jar of Italian style pasta sauce, ideally meat flavored

1 lb ground beef (not extra lean)

1 lb beef salami OR beef or goose sausage OR pickled tongue

1 lb egg noodles, medium or wide

1/4 cup olive oil, schmalz, or goose fat PER PAN

(optional) 1/2 cup of any or all of the following: raisins, pine nuts, chopped almonds

Pans: you can use 2 8" round pans, 2 10" round pans, or 1 10" round pan just filled quite high for a deeper casserole

Instructions

Boil noodles per package instructions until soft, then drain. Brown the ground beef but do not drain it of fat when you're done. Chop the salami, sausage or tongue into cubes. In a large bowl, mix the noodles, ground beef and its fat, meat, and pasta sauce.  Pour 1/4 cup of oil or fat into each dish you will be using to cook the dish in and make sure it greases the sides of the dish as well as the bottom. There will be a lot of fat or oil, that's okay, it will all be taken up as the food cooks. Pour the mixture of food into the prepared dish or dishes, and bake at 350 F for 1 hour (if cooking in two dishes) to 1 1/2 hour (in one deep casserole). It should be pulled away from the sides of the dish and crispy all around, as well as golden on top.

It can be served immediately, or it can be chilled and then warmed for the Sabbath. The liquids are all bound up in the casserole and don't leak out and the dish is baked, so I have had no halachic issues with putting it on a k'deirah warmer for the Sabbath day meal.

Now for the original version:

Ingredients

homemade egg pasta--made with 4 eggs and about 2 1/2-3 cups of flour, sliced into long 1/8" wide noodles, boiled one minute

3 cups homemade meat sauce, use recipe of your choice with plenty of ground beef or goose

1/2 cup diced tongue, salami, or sausage

1/4 cup marrow or schmalz 

(optional) 1/2 cup of any or all of the following: raisins, pine nuts, chopped almonds

The directions are basically the same: boil your noodles, cook your sauce, chop your meat. Use the marrow or fat to grease the pan and leave any leftover marrow or fat in the pan. Combine all ingredients, and bake at 350F for 1-1 1/2 hours until golden.

Other themed dishes we prepared for the same Sabbath:

A Splitting-Of-The-Sea cake decorated by my 7 year old (yes, there are little fish sprinkles)

Sandwich cookies, homemade, representing the tambourines used by the women to accompany their singing