Meaty Honeycomb Pasta Recipe

TikTok has given us an entirely new way to connect through food. From sharing old-timey recipes and pasta bakes to the newest kitchen hacks, the video-sharing app has reinvented the way we use food, giving us thousands of new (and sometimes questionable) ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While some viral trends are aimed to simplify dinnertime, others are designed to wow a crowd, giving us new ways to show up to dinner parties and potlucks. One such recipe is the honeycomb pasta bake, seemingly invented by TikTok user Anna Rothfuss (@bananalovesyoutoo). The dish is essentially a baked ziti but with one big twist — the pasta is baked vertically, giving the end result a honeycomb appearance.

If you've ever wanted a baked pasta dish to be a little more exciting, this is the way to do it. Our version of honeycomb pasta, developed with Michelle McGlinn, calls for rigatoni noodles to be filled with an easy Italian bolognese, infusing the new method with classic flavor. Taking a page from cheesy lasagna, our bake is also filled with creamy ricotta, making it both meaty and cheesy in every bite. A unique, show-stopping way to bring pasta to the table, this is a recipe meant for having fun with, and with our version, which comes with plenty of meaty flavor, too.

The first ingredient you'll need is rigatoni, which works best for the size of the pan but can technically be replaced with any flat-bottomed, tubular pasta. For the sauce, you'll need olive oil, ground beef, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, tomato paste, dry red wine, a large can of whole peeled tomatoes, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. To build the bake, you'll also need ricotta and mozzarella cheeses.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Add the rigatoni and cook for about 9 minutes, or until it's 3 minutes under al dente.

Drain the pasta, then toss it with 1 tablespoon of oil and set it aside.

In the meantime, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the beef and cook and crumble until it is mostly browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the carrots, celery, and onion and cook until soft, another 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir.

Add the tomato paste and combine.

When the tomato paste begins to stick to the bottom of the pot, add the wine and cook to reduce until it's mostly absorbed, about 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, crushing them with the back of a spoon.

Add the tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper, and bring to a simmer. Cook for another 10 minutes, or until thick and combined.

Spread about 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of a springform pan.

Dollop with the ricotta cheese, then spread with a spatula so the bottom is coated with an even layer.

Arrange the rigatoni, standing vertically, until the pan is filled.

Cover completely in the remaining bolognese, stopping before the pan overfills.

Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden and melted.

Remove from the oven, then carefully remove the springform pan around the sides. If any noodles fall, firmly insert them back into the pie.

If desired, sprinkle with parsley to serve.

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Honeycomb pasta is most interesting before being sauced, when the shape of the honeycomb is visible from the top of the pan. Once sauced, the visual novelty becomes the side, where the pasta is shaped like pillars standing tall under the cheesy topping. To reveal this, you have to use a springform pan, which can be unlatched and removed without touching the pasta at all. To do this, first take a knife and run it around the inner perimeter of the pan to release any cheese or sauce that stuck to the pan during baking. With the pasta fully released from the sides, unlatch the pan and lift it cleanly away. From there, slice into the pie like a pizza and serve with a large serving spoon.

If you do not have a springform pan or the pasta seems to be falling apart, you can also serve the honeycomb pasta from inside the pan. Because the noodles fall as soon as the pasta is served, this won't be as visually stunning — but it is the cleaner method, with all of the sauce and cheese staying within the walls of the pan. To serve the pasta this way, simply dig into the pasta bake like any casserole, with a big spoon to catch saucy drippings.

While fun, honeycomb pasta is a good example of why pasta dishes aren't often arranged vertically; the noodles begin to fall apart under the weight of the sauce. While one option is to use a light marinara sauce, this method coats the noodles with less flavor. The best way to prevent the noodles from breaking is to undercook them, then rinse them and coat them with oil so that they do not stick.

The noodles before baking should be firm, with just enough tenderness that they are pliable when squeezed between two fingers. The noodles will continue to cook in the oven, so they can go into the pan just under al dente. Rinse the noodles, then immediately add oil to prevent sticking — a technique usually avoided so that the pasta better combines with the sauce — oiling the noodles in this bake will prevent them from sticking and breaking apart, then further, from absorbing too much sauce and overcooking. Regardless, the pasta may still fall (pesky gravity) — simply use your fingers or a spatula to push the pasta back in, or use extra pieces to fix any that fall apart.

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