For days I have been craving some Baked Ziti or Lasagna, and today at the grocery store, I finally got what I needed to make it.  Once I got home with the ingredients, I went back and looked at all the different recipes I had found on-line (during my craving phase), and realized that none of them contained BOTH ground beef and ricotta cheese.  This meant I had to do some tweaking, and since the result was delicious, I thought I would share.  This is for all of you who like cheese and meat.

BAKED ZITI

Ingredients:

• 1 lb box of Ziti pasta
• 1 15 oz container of Ricotta Cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 2 cups Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/2 – 1 lb lean ground beef
• 2 24 oz jars of your favorite tomato sauce (I used Barilla Tomato and Basil)
• dash garlic salt
• dash onion salt
• dash salt
• dash pepper

Start by bringing 6 quarts of water to boil – salt to taste.  Add ziti when it comes to a boil, and boil 6-8 minutes until ziti is almost cooked (aldente).  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, brown your ground beef, seasoning with onion and garlic salt.  When the beef is browned, drain grease and add the tomato sauce.  Heat through and set aside. 

When Ziti is finished, drain and then mix in ricotta cheese, a dash of pepper, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and 1 1/2 cups of the mozzarella.

In a greased 9×13* baking dish layer the following: small amount of the meat sauce, half of the cheese/ziti mixture, half of remaining meat sauce, rest of ziti, rest of meat sauce. 

Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

*Since our small family could never eat that much at one time, I usually split it up into 3 smaller containers, and freeze two of them.  When you want to use the frozen ones, either defrost overnight in the fridge, or start it in a cold oven and add 30-45 minutes to the baking time.

And here a favorite pasta dish around our house I came up with by combining a few of my sisters' recipes, I call it . . .

BACON PASTA

Ingredients:

• 1 box fettuccine (I only use half for our family though)
• 1 pint of cream
• 1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
• 4-6 slices of bacon, chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• (Optional) chopped mushrooms

Directions:

Start the pasta water, and while you are waiting for it to boil, in a large skillet, fry up bacon until it is cooked.  In the last minute or two of cooking, add the garlic and mushrooms.  Drain grease.  By now the water should be boiling, so add the fettuccine to the water along with a dash of salt. 

While the pasta is boiling, add the cream to the bacon mixture and heat until almost bubbling.  Add Parmesan cheese and mix in until melted on low heat.  When pasta is finished, drain, return to pot and then toss with cream sauce. Feel free to sprinkle a little excess Parmesan cheese on the top to garnish.

For a printer friendly copy of either recipe, click here: Download baked_zitifrom.doc or Download bacon_pasta.doc