Easy Bake Ziti and Italian Garlic Bread

This is another time and budget friendly recipe. In this recipe you certainly have the option to make your own sauce (in this particular case I used the leftovers from my previous blog post - it was delicious), but it will still turn out well with store bought sauce, which is also a major time saver. If you are a fan of cheese, tomato sauce and noddles, which I am, then this recipe will be sure to please. It's also great for a big crowd (a double batch will feed up to 10). I love serving this dish with a scrumptious side of garlic bread (recipe listed below).

Easy Baked Ziti

My Rating: 5/5 *****

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30-45 mintues
Level: Easy

Ingredients
- Cooking spray

- 3/4 lbs ziti or other short pasta

- 1 (15-ounce) containers whole-milk ricotta cheese

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoons garlic powder

- 1 teaspoons dried basil

- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

- Coarsely ground black pepper

- ¼ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

 - 1 cups shredded mozzarella or Provolone cheese

 - 28-32 oz tomato sauce

Directions

1.       To prepare sauce, heat olive oil in medium saucepan. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add salt, sugar and pepper.
2.       Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
3.       Cook ziti about 3 minutes less than the package directions indicate. Drain pasta, reserving ½ cup of cooking water.
4.       Place pasta, ricotta, salt, garlic powder, basil, red pepper flakes, black pepper and half the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese in a large mixing bowl. Stir to mix diluting with a few spoons of pasta cooking water until creamy. Add tomato sauce and mix. Place in baking dish. Sprinkle top with mozzarella and remaining Parmigiano Reggiano. Cover with foil and bake 30 to 45 minutes until thoroughly heated. Remove foil during last 10 minutes of cooking time to brown. Serves 5.

Garlic Bread

Ingredients

 -          1 loaf Italian Bread

-          4 TBLS Butter

-          2 cloves garlic

-          Salt

-          Pepper

-          Italian Seasoning ( I use Private Select Spicy Italian Herb Blend from Kroger – includes rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, garlic, kosher salt, black pepper)

Directions

Turn the oven broiler to high. Cut the loaf of bread in half and lay both sides open faced on a cookie sheet. Next make your garlic butter. Dice the garlic cloves in a food processor. Then add the softened butter and run the processor until they are evenly combined (add salt and pepper to taste). Spread the butter over the bread and sprinkle the top with a generous amount of seasoning. Broil 3-5 minutes or until the bread is browned around the edges.