Baked Ziti

I remember when my mom used to make baked ziti for me and my sister when we were kids. It was nice that she diverted away from her comfort zone of Korean cuisine. I thought it was the best ziti in the world with the Prego tomato sauce and melty mozzarella. Even though my taste in tomato sauce has refined considerably (not that I frown upon canned sauces), I will always remain nostagic about the taste of my mother's ziti.
A few months ago, I started getting a real hankering for baked ziti. I was intimidated at first. It seemed like a lot of work, you know? Finally, I took the bull by th-e horns. I used the Food Network app on my phone to browse through various ziti recipes. I figured out the basics and bought my ingredients:
1. Ziti pasta is obviously the go-to but in a tight pinch I have used the twisty pasta as well... you know, the one that looks like an untapered screw.
2. Tomato sauce. I appreciate a good homemade sauce but I just don't have the time and energy to make one. I buy Hunt's tomato sauces a lot because it's so cheap and flavor it with herbs and spices to appeal to my palate better.
3. About a pound of ground turkey or whatever meat you like. You can skip the animal part altogether as well.
4. Onion. Extremely crucial. Adds a lot of flavor to the meat. Chop half up into a fine mince.
5. Shredded mozzarella. I usually buy part skim mozzarella since ziti is such a heavy and hearty meal. I supposed you can buy the whole mozzarella if you have time to grate it yourself.
6. Ricotta cheese. I also buy this part skim. I love that Sbarro's ziti has ricotta in it because it gives such a nice creamy taste and texture to the dish.




- The first thing you want to do is boil a pot of water to cook the pasta. As my boyfriend once put it, 'Add salt to expedite the boiling process.' That's right... my bf uses big words like expedite. Super sexy~! Add oil if you want, people say it prevents the pasta from sticking but honestly, I've never experienced a difference.
- Once you've added your pasta to the boiling water, start sauteeing the onions in a oiled pan over medium high heat. When they are translucent, add the ground meat to brown- do not cook it all the way or you will have tough chewy rubber. Yuck! This is also a good time to start preheating your oven to 350.
- Heat up the tomato sauce in a sauce pan. Taste it to see what flavors it needs. I usually add basil, oregano, and black pepper.
- Drain the pasta a little bit before it is al dente then mix it with the brown meat. The oils will prevent the pasta from sticking.
- In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta cheese and 2/3 of the mozzarella together.
- Now you start assembling the ziti. Coat the bottom of a casserole dish with some sauce. Toss in a layer of the pasta and meat. Spread a layer of cheese on top. Follow with more sauce. Continue until you have used up all of your ingredients. The very last step should be pouring the remainder of sauce on top.
- Cover with foil and pop into the oven for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, pull of the foil and sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella cheese on top. Put back into the oven, uncovered for another 10 minutes.
- When the 10 minutes are up, pull out the casserole dish and let it rest for another 10 minutes. This is a good time to toss together a quick salad or set the table.

I made two zitis the other night and there weren't any leftovers. It was such an easy meal to prepare and super delicious. =)

Btw, Sbarro's ziti is super bland. xP