Baked Ziti #8

By carvalhohm

Ingredients

• 1 pound ziti (can sub penne) pasta
• Olive oil
• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage or ground beef or pork
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (or basil), minced
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 large jar of marinara sauce (about 32 ounces) or make your own tomato sauce
• 1/2 pound of mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 heaping cup of ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

Details

Servings 8
Cooking time 55mins
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

Bring large pot of water to strong boil. Add about tablespoon salt for every 2 quarts water. Add pasta and boil, uncovered, until pasta is al dente —edible but still little firm. Drain pasta through colander. Toss with little olive oil so pasta does not stick together while you make sauce.

Pour tablespoon or so olive oil into large sauté pan on medium-high to heat. When oil is hot, add bulk sausage or ground meat. Do not crowd pan (work in batches if needed). Break up any large chunks of sausage as it cooks. Brown well. Don't stir that often or it will be more difficult for meat to brown. If you are using ground beef or pork instead of sausage, add a little salt.

When meat is mostly browned, add onions and stir well to combine. Sauté everything until onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary or basil, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Cook 1 minute, then add tomato sauce and stir well. Bring to simmer.

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread thin layer of sauce in bottom of 9x13-inch casserole pan, then dot surface with half ricotta cheese. Ladle in some sauce with pasta, mix it well and add pasta into casserole.

Pour rest of sauce over the pasta, dot remaining ricotta cheese over pasta, and sprinkle on top both the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Bake in oven until top is nicely browned, about 20 minutes.