Meaty Ziti

By Side Passion

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef (1-1/2 lbs)
• 1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes or 1 jar (26 oz. marinara sauce)(Cabernet Marinara)
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 8 oz. (2 cups) uncooked ziti (Barilla)
• 1 pg. (9 oz.) frozen creamed spinach, thawed
• 1 pkg. (8 oz., 2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese (Italian cheese blend)

Details

Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 50mins

Preparation

Step 1

Cook ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring to break up lumps until beef is cooked through, 4 to 5 min. Stir in tomatoes, garlic, oregano and basil.
Spoon 1 cup of meat sauce on bottom of a 3-qt. glass or ceramic casserole.

Arrange ziti in an even layer on top of sauce. Pour remaining meat sauce over ziti.

Spread creamed spinach evenly over the top with a knife. Cover baking dish with foil. (can be made up to 1 day ahead to this point. Refrigerate until baking time.

Bake ziti, covered, on center rack of preheated, 375ºF. oven until bubbling, about 30 (45 min.ºF.)minutes.

Remove baking dish from oven and carefully remove foil and set foil aside. Scatter mozzarella evenly over top, recover dish with foil. Let ziti rest until cheese melts, 10 minutes. Serve at once.

Special Notes:

Made this and liked it. It had a couple of probs, but they can be fixed.

First, I used 1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes, and I was worried it wouldn't have enough flavor, so I upped the garlic to 4 cloves, and added 1 tsp. marjoram in addition to the oregano and basil. Good idea on both, and if I used crushed toms again, I would increase spices further. I also sauteed an onion in olive oil first, and added that, too.

Secondly, there just wasn't enough liquid to cook that dry pasta! I had to add 1 cup of water to it near the end of cooking time because I still had crunchy macaroni because they had absorbed the liquid already and weren't done! So next time I would add a 14-oz. can of petite diced tomatoes in their juice along with the crushed toms, and that will be fine.

Thirdly, and this is not a prob but is a change I made, I cooked a 9-oz. bag of fresh baby spinach and added 1 round of Boursin cheese, just until it melted. I used that concoction instead of the creamed spinach. That was fine.