I’ve been bugging my mom for her official baked ziti and homemade meat sauce recipe for a long time. However, this recipe doesn’t have her homemade meat sauce in it and we also added Giada de Laurentiis’ meatballs. I just can’t leave well enough alone – tinkering is what I do! 😉
I promise I’ll share mom’s homemade meat sauce recipe, but I just didn’t have time to make it on this day. It’s divine, and it makes me sad to settle for store-bought. The good news is that I didn’t have to settle for store-bought: I used a jar of sauce my mom brought on her last visit from one of my favorite Italian restaurants in my hometown. Supporting local every chance we get!
Baked ziti is such a great dish – hearty, indulgent, filling, and rich. It also makes terrific leftovers. The addition of the meatballs gave it another few levels of flavors and added to the overall amount of food produced which means MORE leftovers. Yum.
I love that I can go right out into my garden and pick fresh herbs to mix with the ricotta and mozzarella. This time, I used both fresh parsley and oregano and it definitely added something extra to the dish.
While cooking pasta according to package instructions, mix the ricotta, mozzarella, egg, and fresh chopped parsley and oregano together in a bowl.
Add sauce to the bottom of a large pan.
Mix and form the meatballs and run through flour.
Brown the meatballs in a large skillet (they will cook more in the oven with the ziti)
After draining the cooked pasta, add the ricotta mixture and stir combine.
Add the sauce and stir to combine, then gently fold in the meatballs.
Pour into the large pan and top with a mix of mozzarella and romano cheeses. Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes.
- 1 16 oz box of penne or ziti pasta
- 1 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese
- 3.5 cups shredded mozzarella
- 0.5 cups shredded romano (can use more mozzarella if you don't have romano)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons each of fresh chopped parsley and oregano
- 5 cups of your preferred tomato sauce
- Salt and pepper
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- While cooking, mix 2.5 cups of mozzarella, ricotta, egg, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper in a bowl.
- Spread one cup of sauce on the bottom of a large baking pan.
- Drain pasta and return to pot.
- Add cheese mixture to pasta and combine.
- Add remaining 4 cups of sauce.
- Pour in to large baking dish and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and romano cheeses.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, until all cheese is melted and the sauce bubbles.
- Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
- Top with fresh chopped parsley, if desired.
- This is great as is, or with meatballs: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/baked-ziti-with-meatballs-recipe/index.html. Yum!
