I had book club at my house recently and had an extremely busy week leading up to it. I won't bore you with all the details, but I had commitments (including company and travel) all day and every evening for the week leading up to book club. I needed to prepare a meal for eight that would not require much hands-on time during our meeting. I admit to taking the easy out and making this do-ahead recipe for our group for dinner. It fits in with my food philosophy of being easy, foolproof, tasty and the added advantage of being able to be made ahead and/or prepared as a freezer meal.
Baked Ziti ready to go in the oven or freeze for later |
Baked Ziti
(Adapted from a Cooking Light Recipe November
2003)
Yield: 8 servings
(serving size 1 ½ cups)
Ingredients
1 (1-pound) package uncooked ziti
1 pound hot turkey Italian sausage
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (8 ounce) can tomato paste
¼ t salt
¼ t black pepper
2 (14.5 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes (undrained)
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
1T dried Italian Seasoning
Cooking spray
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups sour cream
1.
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees
2.
Cook pasta according to package directions. Set aside.
3.
Remove casings from sausage. Cook sausage, onion and garlic in non-stick
skillet until sausage is browned, stirring to crumble. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper and
tomatoes and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce
heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4.
Combine cooked pasta, sausage mixture, and
basil. Place half the mixture in a 4
quart casserole coated with cooking spray.
Top with half the sour cream, half the mozzarella, and half the
Parmesan. Repeat layers. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until
bubbly.
Cooked sausage, onion & garlic |
The cooked ziti combined with the cooked sausage and tomato mixture |
Ready to spread the sour cream on the first layer |
The side view - Yummy! |
Note: This can be
made a day ahead and refrigerated. When heating,
bake for approximately 45 minutes. Also,
it can be frozen. When heating, bake for
approximately 1 hour, or more, depending on portion size.