Pastere – Pasta Squares

When I was growing up, every time I went to my grandparents house, there would be a snack of cold congealed cubes of pasta with an eggy flavor that was sometimes flecked with pepperoni. Based on the adjectives I used to describe it, you could probably imagine that I wasn’t super fond of it. The rest of my family seemed to love it, so I always felt left out. We called it Pastere, but I can’t find any evidence of such a thing existing on the internet. This 4th of July, when I was asked to bring the Pastere to the picnic, I decided I would make sure that I made something I would like too! Armed with my grandma’s handwritten recipe I got to work.

I made one pan with mix-ins, and one without.

The sauce for this recipe is eggs, cheese and a little bit of pasta cooking liquid.

Mix the pasta into the sauce…

…then split it into the 2 pans. Bake for about a half hour.

After it cools slice it up! I was very happy with how these came out. They were a little bit moister than they were back in the day and all the veggies added nice flavor.

The plain variety

I think people are starting to get annoyed with their faces poping up on this website, because most people at the party seemed to not want me to snap their pictures!

1 pound spaghetti
1 pound penne
9 eggs
2 cups grated parm
2 cups grated mozzarella
1/2 cup pasta water
Optional mix-ins – shredded zucchini, red peppers, and salami

Whisk the eggs and add in the cheese. Boil the pasta in heavily salted water. When the pasta is just about ready, grab 1/2 cup of the water and whisk it into the eggs. Strain the pasta and whisk it into the egg mixture. Grease 2 baking pans (13X9) and pour the mixture into the 2 pans, making sure that the liquid gets evenly dispersed. Now is when you would mix any mix-ins in. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.