Baked Ziti make a wonderful Sunday dish. I love to make this dish on those cold wintry days for lunch right after church. This is a nice hearty, warm meal that will keep your family full and it will magically heat your home up since it is baked in the oven. My windows develop a nice thick layer of vapor when I cook this. Just makes me enjoy spending lazy Sundays at home with my family in a special way.
What makes this dish special is the wonderful combination of Italian sausage, peppers and ricotta cheese. These tastes mingle greatly and the best pasta shape, in my opinion, are Rigatoni. There is one thing I highly recommend for this recipe though: Barilla Pasta. This pasta is known to keep the shape well and maintaining its ability to stay slightly “al dente”.
Now to the point, here is my recipe:
Ingredients:
1 Package Barilla Pasta
2 Italian sausages cooked and sliced
1 Green Bell Pepper diced
1/2 container Ricotta cheese
1 cup Shredded Mozzarella
1 can tomato sauce
1 small onion chopped
1 stalk of celery
1 carrot chopped
Sweet Basil as needed
Olive oil as needed
Salt as needed
Pepper as needed
Direction
Start by putting up some water to boil for the pasta. In a saucepan, sauté onion, celery and carrot in the olive oil. Add the diced pepper and the sausage. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the can of sauce and let the sauce simmer. Toss in a few basil leaves. Once the water for the pasta is boiling, salt and add the rigatoni.
Cook according to package making sure it stays al dente since the pasta will go in the oven later. In the meanwhile, preheat the oven.
Once cooked, drain and put the pasta back in the casserole you used to boil it. Add the sauce, the ricotta and the half cup of shredded mozzarella. Mix and transfer to a baking dish and top with the remaining shredded mozzarella. Bake until the mozzarella has melted and your family is begging for their portion. Buon appetito!