Baked Ziti

Hallelujah! I finally found a dish that the whole family loves. This Baked Ziti is easy, cheesy, and totally delicious. It’s full of rich and meaty tomato sauce and loads of creamy mozzarella cheese. The whole family gobbled it up and came back asking for more. That’s a winner in my book.

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Start With the Sauce

The first step to this Baked Ziti is simmering the sauce.

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef then add the can of tomatoes and tomato sauce and your garlic and spices.

You can add garlic and onions to the ground beef if you’d like.

I just didn’t have any and the recipe was perfectly good without it.

Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 30 minutes.

If you only have 20 minutes, that will work too.

You just want to give the sauce time to thicken and get nice and rich and yummy.

When your sauce is done, spoon out about 3 or 4 cups of sauce into a separate bowl to cool.

Cook The Pasta That YOU Like

Now, you don’t have to actually use ziti noodles in your Baked Ziti.

You could use penne or rigatoni or even rotini.

Just use what you have or what you like.

You want to stop cooking the pasta noodles when they’re almost al dente because you’ll be cooking the pasta more when it’s in the oven.

I personally like my pasta softer so I cooked mine al dente.

When your pasta is done cooking, pour it into a colander and rinse the pasta with cool water so that it’ll stop the cooking process.

Be sure to drain your pasta well so that your Baked Ziti won’t be runny.

Cheesy Cheese Cheesiness

A pound and a half of mozzarella. Need I say more?

Oh yes, ricotta. And Parmesan. Okay, I’m done. That’s pretty cheesy.

In a large bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, two cups of the mozzarella cheese, Parmesan, the egg, and the salt and pepper.

Add the cooled pasta and the cooled reserved sauce and mix it all around.

Bring Out The Big Guns … err, Big Bakers

You’ll want large lasagna baker or another large baking dish for this Baked Ziti.

I used a 3-quart baking dish and you can see how my ziti is mounded over the top of the dish. It all stayed in the pan. Nothing spilled out.

But I’d recommend a slightly larger baking dish for this Baked Ziti.

In your large baking dish, layer half the coated pasta then half the remaining sauce then half the remaining mozzarella.

Then repeat with another layer of pasta, sauce, and mozzarella.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until hot and bubbly.

After removing from the oven, allow the Baked Ziti to cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

Garnish with additional Parmesan or parsley.

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