Baked Ziti

Ziti is one of my favorite company meals. It can be made ahead, it's satisfying and almost everyone likes it, especially children. And this recipe is so good. It's not a dump-everything-in-and-bake kinda dish, but the few extra steps reward you with tender noodles, punctuated by cheesy goodness and a bright, tomato sauce. 

Baked Ziti

Makes a 9 x 13 pan

Recipe is easily halved

2 eggs, beaten

1 lb whole milk cottage cheese

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan (about 3 oz)

1 lb ziti

2 T. olive oil

5 garlic cloves, minced (about 5 tsp.)

1 28 oz. can tomato sauce

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 cup chopped, fresh basil or a few shakes of dried

1 tsp. sugar

3/4 tsp. cornstarch

1 cup heavy cream

8 oz. mozzarella cut into 1/4 inch pieces, about 1 1/2 cups

Boil ziti noodles in a large Dutch Oven with 1 T. salt for 5 - 7 minutes. It should be al dente. 

Drain and set aside. 

While pasta is boiling, stir together eggs, cottage cheese and 1 cup of the Parmesan in a medium bowl. (Save the other 1/2 cup of Parmesan to sprinkle on the top.) Set mixture aside. 

Mince the garlic cloves. 

(If your cloves have green shoots in the middle, make sure to take them out. 

They will make your dish taste bitter.)

Place minced garlic and oil in a large skillet. 

Then turn the heat up to medium and heat for 2 minutes. 

Add tomato sauce and oregano. Simmer on low, until thickened, about 10 minutes.

I highly suggest you use a splatter guard at this point!

Off the heat, stir in the basil (fresh or dried), sugar and season to taste with salt and pepper.

While sauce is simmering, whisk together cream and cornstarch

 in the bottom of the now-empty Dutch Oven. 

Simmer until thickened, about 3 - 4 minutes. 

It should look like this.

If your mozzarella hasn't been cubed yet, do it now. 

(If you're more of a shredded mozzarella kinda person, I'm sure you could substitute with that, 

although, I have not tried it.)

Then we're ready to mix it all together!

To the cream mixture in the Dutch Oven, add: cooked ziti, cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup of the tomato sauce and about half of the mozzarella (3/4 cup).

Stir together. 

Then, in a 9 x 13 pan, layer: the ziti mixture, the remaining tomato sauce, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cubes and the remaining Parmesan. 

Cover with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

Then, remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes. 

Let sit for 10 minutes before serving. 

Recipe adapted from Entertaining Magazine (from Cook's Illustrated.)