Baked Ziti

Posted by Kimberly:

Last week one of my girls pulled out a recipe book that a friend of mine had given me for Christmas last year. It is "Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book" and I had actually kind of forgotten that I had it. As I was planning my menu and preparing my grocery list for this week, I decided to flip through it and see if there was anything that sounded good. I came across this recipe for baked ziti. Not only did the picture of it look good, but it still sounded good after I read the ingredients.

Baked Ziti

1 pound ziti rigate or rigatoni

2 cups ricottta cheese

Grill seasoning, such as McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning

Grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1-2 garlic cloves, chopped

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce (I used a little more...probably 1 1/2 - 2 cups)

Fresh basil leaves (I used Italian seasoning)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring a big pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water, add the pasta, and cook to al dente.

Drain the ricotta cheese in a strainer or a colander lined with paper towels. Place the drained ricotta in a 9 x 13 casserole dish and season with some grill seasoning and a few handfuls of Parmesan cheese.

While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in s small pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and a pinch or two of red pepper flakes and saute for a minute or two, then stir in the tomatoes and basil. Reduce the heat to low.

Drain the pasta and toss with the cheese mixture. Add the tomato sauce, top the pasta with more Parmesan and bake about 15 minutes or until the cheese browns.

In the words of Rachael Ray, this was "yumm-o". I will definitely make this again. This would be really good with some ground beef and/or spinach added to it (which would require that I use more of the crushed tomato sauce.) This time I served it with Parmesan chicken which was good too.

Enjoy! Pin It Now!