Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Baked Ziti

It’s kind of like lasagna – but a bit easier to make.

Ingredients:
1 lb box of ziti, or penne pasta
2 lb container ricotta cheese
1 – 1 ½ lb grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated parmesan
2 eggs, beaten
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp garlic salt
Generous handful of finely sliced fresh basil leaves
Large jar of your favorite pasta sauce. I use Classico Tomato Basil. You may want some extra sauce to ladle over the ziti once it has baked.

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well.

In a bowl mix ricotta cheese with parmesan, garlic powder, eggs, basil & garlic salt.

Spray a 13 x 9 pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of the pan and swirl around to evenly coat the pan.

Layer ½ the pasta in the pan; layer ½ of the mozzarella cheese on top of it; evenly spread the ricotta mixture over the cheese; place almost all of the rest of the mozzarella on top of that – reserve enough to sprinkle on the top of the dish when finished. Place the remaining pasta on top of the cheese and then cover with the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese on top. (Order: sauce, pasta, cheese, ricotta, cheese, pasta, sauce, cheese)

Cover with foil and place into 350 oven to bake until bubbly – approximately 35 – 45 minutes. Remove the foil after 30 minutes so that the cheese on top can brown.
Note: Can be made and put together and then refrigerated until ready to bake. Typically, I make this the day before I’m going to bake and serve it. If baked after being in the fridge – it will take about an hour to cook through. Suggestion, remove from fridge 1 – 2 hours before cooking so that it won’t take so long to heat through.