Made By Kali

Most baked ziti at buffets and potlucks tend to be an overcooked, mushy mass of tasteless pasta and sauce. Not this one. People never fail to beg for this recipe.

The title of this recipe is a lie. We will be using penne, because it holds its shape and texture better.

This recipe will make two 9×11 pans, which will feed about 6 hungry people each. I recommend using disposable pans, because likely you will need to freeze one pan unless you are really feeding a crowd. Heavy-duty is a must because the weight of all these tasty things will actually collapse cheap pans.

Ingredients

• ~1lb dry penne
• ~1lb lean ground beef (I use 90% or above)
• 2 26.5 oz cans Hunts Traditional Spaghetti Sauce (or plain spaghetti sauce)
• 1 8oz can plain tomato sauce
• 1 medium onion
• ~2lb part-skim mozzarella
• ~1 large tub ricotta
• ~2 eggs
• ~garlic (taste as you go. I use almost 1/2 c in this recipe)
• ~oregano (1-2 tsp generally)
• ~basil (1 tsp generally)
• ~olive oil

A few hours before serving time

• Drain your ricotta in a fine sieve or cheesecloth over a bowl in the fridge.

1 hour before assembly

• Dice and fry the onion in oil in a nice big saute or sauce pan.
• When onions are translucent, add the beef and half of the garlic, oregano and basil. Brown.
• When beef is browned, add 1 can of spaghetti sauce and the tomato sauce
• Let cover and let simmer until ready to assemble ziti. Stirring often.
• Start grating the mozzarella.

30 minutes before assembly

• Start your pasta water boiling.
• Mix drained ricotta, eggs, and rest of seasonings in a large bowl. Let come to room temperature.
• Preheat your oven to ~350.

10 minutes before assembly.

• Cook your pasta for 2-3 minutes less than the packaging recommends. It should be just barely cooked through and very chewy.

Assembly

• In each pan, layer in the following order: 1/4 of pasta, 1/4 of ricotta, 1/4 of meat sauce, 1/6 mozzarella, repeat once.
• Now mix it all together! (Why layer first? To make sure everything is evenly divided and mixed.)
• Split remaining can of sauce over the top of pans.
• If you are freezing one pan, pop it in the fridge now.

Cooking

• Loosely cover pan with tin foil.
• Bake in over until heated through. If all the ingredients were still warm when they were assembled, this may take 45 minutes. If they were allowed to cool first, this could be closer to 90 minutes.
• Remove foil and top with remaining cheese. Continue baking until cheese is melted.

Freezing and Thawing

• To freeze, cover with tinfoil and freeze until firm. When firm, reposition the tin foil to lay directly on the top of the ziti. This will allow you to stack these large, silver bricks.
• To thaw, place in refrigerator 48 hours ahead of time. Because of the density, these bricks take an eternity to thaw. Do NOT try to cook from frozen state.

Serving Suggestions

• Keep it simple. A large green salad and a loaf or two of garlic bread will satisfy everyone but the pickiest of eaters.
• To make garlic bread: Slice a loaf of Italian bread in half horizontally. Mash a stick of salted butter with a teaspoon or two of garlic. Spread on bread and broil until the edges of the bread start to brown.

See the recipe Recipe Manifesto.