Baked Ziti at home
- Yield 8
- Prep 15 minutes
- Cook 35 minutes
- Total 40 minutes
Baked Ziti at home is a pasta recipe on Avoteb. The yield on the card is 8. Plan on 40 minutes from start to plate. The amounts and the method are both on this page.
Ingredients
Yield: 8 servings
- 1 pound uncooked ziti
- 1 (4 ounce) package pancetta (or diced bacon)
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 5 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon each: crushed red pepper flakes, dried oregano, fine sea salt
- 2 (28-ounce) jars marinara sauce
- 2 handfuls (3 ounces) fresh baby spinach
- 16 ounces shredded whole milk mozzarella, divided
- 2/3 cup freshly-grated Parmesan, divided
- chopped fresh basil and/or parsley, for topping
Method
Prep the pasta water, oven and baking dish. Raise a large pot of generously-salted water to a boil. Warm the oven to 400°F. Mist a 9x13-inch baking dish with oil.
Leave the pancetta in a large sauté pan or stockpot until browned, stirring occasionally. Take a slotted spoon to move the pancetta to a clean bowl and keep nearby. Tip in the Italian sausage and onion and cook until browned, breaking the sausage up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Tip in the garlic, crushed red pepper flakes and oregano and sauté for 2 more minutes, stirring frequently.
Leave the pasta. Tip in the pasta to the boiling water and cook until it’s about 1 minute shy of al dente. (The pasta will continue to cook in the oven.) pour off the pasta and return it to the stockpot.
Finish the sauce. While the pasta is cooking, carefully add in the marinara sauce, spinach and cooked pancetta to the meat mixture and stir to combine until the spinach has wilted. One the pasta has been drained, pour the sauce into the stockpot with the pasta and gently toss to combine.
Layer in a pan. Tip in about half of the pasta mixture to the pan in an even layer. Scatter evenly with half of the mozzarella and half of the Parmesan. Tip in the remaining pasta and sprinkle evenly with the remaining mozzarella.
Roast Roast for 20 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese begins to brown. (If you’d like the cheese even more golden, you can turn on the broiler for a minute or two until it starts to brown, keeping a very close eye so that it does not burn.)
Plate Scatter with the remaining Parmesan and basil or parsley, serve up nice and hot, and enjoy!
