baked ziti

Simple and delightful, this dish is a quick and easy fix to the normal hum drum spaghetti and meatballs.  Ok who are we kidding I don't actually talk like that, I've been on Real Simple looking at home decoration ideas for way too long reading their little descriptions and that's how THEY talk. 

This dish is simple, though, and is made with a less complex marinara sauce than my other marinara sauce I used for my lasagna (posted a couple months back).  We'll call this sauce a tomato-basil pomodoro so it sounds fancy.  Baked Ziti is one of those dishes I never make but it's something so comforting and delicious- and filling- that I thought I'd take a stab at it.  Come to find out, it's just like making dadgom spaghetti and meat sauce but with a different type of pasta and thrown into the oven.  Why have I not been making this more often?  It was scrumptious.  Ok friends, here's the recipe (with lots of pictures this time!)

Ingredients:

• 1 package of sweet italian sausage, with the sausage cut out of the casings (if that's new lingo for you, basically what I did is bought a package of the big sausage "links" and took a knife and cut down the middle and got all of the actual sausage out.  It's not a pretty job but ya gotta do it- or you could just slice the sausage instead of removing them from the casings)
• 4-5 medium sized garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• leftover red wine (or balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar)
• lots of beautiful basil- do not make this recipe if you don't have basil.  there's just no point.
• 1 box penne pasta
• 2 cups of your choice of mozzarella, parmesan, or a mix (I used a Sargento Italian blend)

Directions:

•  cook your box of pasta until JUST UNDER al-dente.  Al-dente is when it has a bit of a "bite" to it, so it's not completely soft- you want a real "bite" to it- not just a little one, because the pasta continues baking in the liquid of the sauce in the oven and we don't want it to turn out mushy!
• drain your pasta and place it aside
•  get some olive oil and add just a quarter sized amount to the pot and turn it on medium-high heat. you won't need too much oil because the sausage has some fat in it that will help render it down
• add your sausage that you have so kindly removed from the casings and break it up in the pan like so:

• ok now you see all that juice left on the pot after you removed the sausage?  we won't call it grease or fat, we'll call it juice.  we're gonna use it to sautee our onions and garlic.  you heard me. use the juice!

• add your onions and garlic and cook them down until they start looking translucent like the above photo
• next add your sausage back to the pan:

• cook it for a few more minutes, turn your pan to medium high, then give your pot a couple swigs of some leftover red (or white) wine you have laying around- our some red wine or balsamic vinegar
• let that cook down for 2-3 minutes then add your can of crushed tomatoes, a big pinch of salt, and partially cover your pan like so:

• let it cook for 15 minutes on medium-low heat then take the lid off and add 2-3 big bunches of gorgeous basil (mine was gorgeous, anyway.)  I didn't get pictures of this, but trust me, it was beautiful.
• stir in your basil and smell the aromas (it might be a good idea to taste for salt levels and see what you need to add)

• this was before the basil hit the pot, but still, mmmmm
• alright so your basil is stirred around, now add that pasta you put aside

•  taste for flavor- does it need anything?
• spray a 9x13 and pour your pasta in it and cover with aluminum foil
• bake at 375 for 15 minutes, then remove your foil, add your cheese (pretty much the entire bag) and let it bake for 5-10 more minutes

ohhhh yeahhh mama

• enjoy!!