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Baked Ziti

Baked Ziti

An Italian American classic
Total Time1 hour
Course: Primo
Cuisine: Italian-American
Keyword: baked, pasta

Ingredients

  • 500g 1 lb ziti ( or other short pasta
  • 1 batch marinara sauce made with one large can (800g/26 oz) tomatoes
  • 1 ball mozzarella (about 250g/8oz), cut into cubes

For the ricotta cream:

  • 250g 8 oz ricotta cheese (one small container)
  • 2-3 eggs
  • 100g 3-1/2 oz freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano
  • A couple of sprigs of fresh parsley finely minced
  • Salt and pepper

Optional

  • 2-3 sweet Italian sausages

For baking:

  • grated parmigiano-reggiano
  • Olive oil for greasing the baking dish and drizzling on top of the pasta

Instructions

Prepping the ingredient

  • Prepare the marinara sauce following the directions found in this post. Be generous with the olive oil and make sure the sauce remains quite loose, as it will continue to reduce in the oven. 
  • Prepare the ricotta cream: In a large mixing bowl, stir the ricotta with a wooden spoon to soften it, then mix in the egg, grated cheese, minced parsley and a pinch of salt and pepper, until you have a smooth uniform cream. Taste and adjust for seasoning. 
  • Cut the mozzarella into small dice
  • If using, fry up the sausages, then let them cool and cut them into dice. 
  • Just before you're ready to bake, cook the ziti in well salted water until they are just slightly underdone, perhaps a minute less than indicated on the package. 

Assembling the dish:

  • When the pasta is done, transfer it to a large mixing bowl and dress it with enough marinara sauce to coat it lightly. 
  • Lay down a layer of the pasta in a well-greased baking dish. Ladle over a bit more of the sauce, sprinkle with grated parmigiano-reggiano, then add dollops of the ricotta cream here and there, along with the mozzarella cubes and, if using, the bits of sausage. 
  • Repeat until you've used up the ingredients. For the final layer, lay on the pasta first, slather over a generous ladling of the sauce, then sprinkle with more grated parmigiano-reggiano and mozzarella cubes. Drizzle with olive oil. 

Baking and serving

  • Bake in a hot (200C/400F) oven for about 20-30 minutes, or until the dish is bubbly hot and nicely browned on top. 
  • Let you Baked Ziti settle for 10 minutes or so before serving. Accompany if you like with any remaining sauce and more grated cheese. 

Notes

The recipe for marinara sauce can be found here.