Baked Ziti

Jason LOVES baked ziti but I am not a huge fan of ricotta cheese so that throws a little kink in the plan... until I stumbled across this recipe.  I believe I originally found it on AllRecipes.com but have made it so many times from memory, I am not 100% sure.  It is another "cheater" recipe and uses things you probably have in your fridge right now.  I get a ton of compliments on this and it makes HUGE portions.


You Will Need:

• 3/4 Box Penne Pasta
• 1lb. ground beef
• 1 Jar of spaghetti sauce
• 1 small onion
• 4-5 slices provolone cheese
• 1 bag shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 C. Sour Cream

 
 
Preheat your oven to 350. Then cook your pasta in lightly salted water, just set it aside when it is done.   In a skillet cook your ground beef and onions together on Medium High heat.    
 

  
I always add my Garlic Seasoning here, usually quite a bit of it...   

   
Once your meat is cooked all the way through, add your spaghetti sauce.  I also add some flavored Olive Oil to the sauce, yummy!   The Spaghetti Sauce I was using this time was really sweet so I added even more Garlic Seasoning until I got the taste I was hoping for.   
   
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Turn your sauce to low and let simmer for 10 minutes or so.  Next, spray a 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray.  Alright, here comes the fun part! Pour half of your pasta into your baking dish, you can just eyeball it.  Then cover with a layer of sliced provolone cheese.    

  
Now throw a few spoonfuls of Sour cream on top of your cheese and spread around.

  
Cover that with half of your meat sauce.
    

  
Spread that around...
  

  
Now, add your remaining pasta and sprinkle that with 1/2 of your bag of mozzarella cheese
  

 
Add the rest of your sauce, your pan should be looking very full at this point (and oh so yummy)   

  
 Look at those layers!!!  Now, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.      

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  When your timer goes off, pull out your almost finished baked ziti and top with your remaining Mozzarella cheese.  Throw that sucker in the oven about 10 more minutes or 2 - 3 minutes under the broiler... your choice.  (Make sure you watch it closely if you choose the broiler, you can toast your ziti very quickly if you forget about it)  

   
When the cheese is all browned and melted, it is time to mow down!!!     

   
SO YUMMY!!! Look at that cheese, those layers of goodness....
Enjoy!

(PS. . . Here is a quick breakdown of what just happened.)

Cook pasta

Make your favorite meat sauce

Layer a greased baking dish as follows...

1/2 cooked pasta

Sliced Provolone

Sour Cream

1/2 Sauce

Remaining Pasta

1/2 mozzarella

Remaining Sauce

Cover and bake, top with remaining mozzarella and brown.

You can make a GIANT portion of this by doubling everything except the pasta (just use the whole box of pasta... trust me it will be plenty)