Baked Ziti
I cannot stress this enough - use fresh mozzarella. Bagged mozzarella never seems to melt the same, and the taste is much different. It can be a pain to grate mozzarella, but it’s well worth it.
You can use a traditional ziti pasta for this, but I started using rigatoni and it holds the cheesy sauce much better. Also, you can easily add Italian sausage to this meal if you’re craving meat, just cook it on the side and add it to the pasta sauce before mixing it with the cheese and pasta. But to be honest, I think this meal is better without the meat, it’s quite filling and pretty heavy as is.
Serves: 6-8 servings
Prep time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
from Udell’s Kitchen
Ingredients
Pasta sauce or a jar of your preference
1 pound rigatoni or ziti
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, shredded
1 1/3 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
Basil for garnish
Instructions
Heat oven to 375°.
Once pasta sauce is cooked, remove from heat and set to the side to cool. If you’re using sauce from a jar, heat it in a pan and add some (or all) of the spices listed above.
Cook the pasta per the directions on the box, then drain and set to the side.
In a large mixing bowl, add 3/4 of the shredded mozzarella, all of the ricotta, all of the parmesan, the egg, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Add the cooked pasta and pasta sauce to mixing bowl with cheese, mix well. Pour mixture into 13x9 pan, and top with remaining mozzarella.
Bake at 375° for 25 minutes, then broil for 2-3 minutes, or until cheese on top is bubbling.
Remove from oven and top with torn pieces of basil. Wait at least 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Quick Hit
You don’t have to use my marinara recipe to make this baked ziti, you can use sauce from a can and just add spices to it.
Again, use fresh mozzarella. It has a huge impact on the taste and the way it bakes, trust me on this one.