Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Baked Ziti with Meatballs


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We made this ziti recipe last weekend (plus 1/4 meatball pieces throughout half of it- yum!) and it's been absolutely delicious. If you like a lot of cheese, the recipe is PERFECT. If you like a little less, I'd use 15 oz. of ricotta instead of 24 and a little less mozzarella. I think next time I may tone down the cheesiness. Here goes..

Ingredients:
1 (16 oz.) package Ziti pasta
24 oz. Ricotta Cheese
1 lb. Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 Egg, beaten
1 (32 oz.) jar Spaghetti Sauce
1/4 c. grated Parmesan Cheese
* We also made 5-10 Mama Lucia frozen meatballs on the stove in some sauce, cut them in smaller pieces and added them to 1/2 of the ziti before placing in oven. (Note: If you're making meatballs this way, you may want to have some extra sauce on hand.)

Kitchen Needs:
- large pot (big enough to cook a whole box of pasta)
- large spoon/slotted spoon
- colander
- bowl (we suggest a large one- you have to mix all of the ziti and almost all of the other ingredients in it.)
- 13x9 dish or pan
- oven & stove

Recipe:
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and rinse.
2. In a medium bowl, mix ziti, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, egg and 1 1/2 cups spaghetti sauce. (Note: A medium bowl was not big enough for all of these ingredients- use a big one!)
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish and spoon in ziti mixture. Top with remaining spaghetti sauce, followed by Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes; let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

We served our ziti with cucumber and ranch dressing- yum! If we were really thinking ahead, garlic bread would have been a nice addition. Do you do something unique with your ziti/lasagna/italian dishes?

1 comment:

  1. We usually serve our pasta dishes with a nice crispy baguette and some olive oil sprinkled with salt and pepper or herbes de provence for dipping!

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