Thursday, March 4, 2010

Baked Ziti

baked ziti

A comfort dish for sure, Baked Ziti is one of my favorites, of course it's a pasta dish. Baked Ziti easy to prepare and even tastes better the next day when all of the flavor have melded together. This recipe goes well with, garlic bread, a big leafy Caesar salad or even a simple side as broccolini.


Ingredients

1 pound of ziti
4 cloves of garlic
1 pound of Italian sausage, removed from casing. ( I use chicken Italian sausage)
15 ounces of ricotta cheese
1 pound of fresh mozzarella cheese, diced
1 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbs fresh basil, chopped
26 ounce jar of marinara sauce
Salt and pepper to taste



Directions

Heat oven to 400˙ Cook pasta so it is al dente. Set aside. In a skillet crumble your sausage along with your garlic on med high heat until cooked through. In a large bowl toss the pasta with the meat mixture along with the marinara sauce, basil, ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan. Salt and pepper to taste. Transfer mixture to a large baking dish that is lightly greased with olive oil. Sprinkle the top of your pasta dish with extra parmesan . Bake until bubbly and golden brown about 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Photobucket




6 comments:

  1. Yum! This looks wonderful. My best friend just had a baby girl and I think I'm going to make a batch of this for them! Great comfort food:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you make anything that doesn't just look absolutely TERRIFIC??? :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You don't know how I wish you could come make dinner for us! Some nights I am just so lazy about cooking! Anyway, I'm trying...a work in progress! I have all the ingredients to make the clam chowder again...it was sooooooo good!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Laura... this is a PERFECT meal for moms on the go (like me), but it also is so full of flavor and in no way cuts corners on yumminess! So quick and easy! I'm eating left overs for lunch right now, and just shared your recipe w/my coworker.

    Another great one!

    ReplyDelete
  5. just have to know, what jar sauce would you reccomend? this looks yumm-y:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you ladies for the comments! I use Paul Newmans marinara with cheese in it. It is yummy and the cheese makes it rich and delicious.
    Laura

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your feedback!