Editors' Pick
Deliciously Cheesy Baked Ziti
photo by SharonChen
- Ready In:
- 50mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Serves:
-
8-10
ingredients
- 1 lb ziti pasta, cooked al dente
- 1 lb Italian sausage, cooked and chopped
- 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons parsley
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
- 1⁄4 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 (28 ounce) jar pasta sauce, divided
directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
- Cook ziti according to package directions; drain; set aside.
- Mix ricotta, egg, parsley, 1-1/2 cups of the mozarella cheese, and parmesan cheese in a large bowl.
- Mix cooked sausage and pasta in with ricotta mixture.
- Mix in 3/4 jar of sauce.
- Transfer mixture into a 2 quart casserole dish.
- Top with the rest of the sauce and mozarella cheese.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
- To freeze: Cover dish with foil and freeze. When frozen you can pop it out of the container and put in a freezer bag if desired.
- To heat: Thaw. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more.
Reviews
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This received my DH's approval as a keeper recipe (I let him think he has a choice ;0) I added about 1 1/2 cloves of minced garlic to ricotta and used 4 1/2 c of recipe #22782 sauce, it already has sausage in it and the amount of sauce/sausage was perfect. I make big batches of the sauce and freeze it in 4 1/2 c portions for lasagna or meatball subs and now ziti, it works great! I reserved 1 c sauce for topping and added an extra 1/2 c cheese to fully cover. The dish I used was 2 1/2 qts and it was filled to the brim! Baked about 20 minutes uncovered, covered it for 17 minutes and then took out and let sit for 5 minutes uncovered. Thanks for the recipe!
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This stuff is incredible!!! I tried it out on my room mate since I had an entire day to exparament. He took one bite and said "I could almost kiss you". He went back for two more helpings, not to mention the awesome garlic bread I made to go with it. I followed the recipe exactly as written, except I added a good pinch of dried oregano as I love it. This one is definitely going under the "tried and true" file and will be made often in the future. The only thing I'd do different is invite several more people to enjoy it with us. Thanks for a great recipe!
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Tweaks
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This was wonderful and enjoyed by the whole family. I did use cottage cheese instead of ricotta and kaseri instead of mozzarella as they are easier for me to find in the supermarket. I made the pasta sauce from scratch but as it worked out to be a bit less than needed I added about 1/2 cup of water into the mix as well. I also liked the fact this made a lot and I filled a small baking dish and put it into the deep freeze for another day. A very practical recipe with a lot of flavour but no fancy ingrredients.
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How anyone can rate this below 5 stars is beyond me. It was simple and delicious. The only thing I changed was that I used penne instead of ziti, skipped the hot sausage (because of the kiddos) and used low-fat or fat-free products for the cheeses. FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC! I am wishing that we had some leftovers but this all vanished. This will definitely go into regular rotation in our house. Thanks so much for posting!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
S in PA
Reston, VA
I love to experiment with new recipes for my family. Thanks to all who share here!