Baked Ziti

Baked pasta is one of my primary food groups and this just so happens to be the king of them all. Sometimes, I just make a ton of this and eat the leftovers all week long. Disclaimer: a week straight of eating this and nothing else may result in feeling like a bowling ball by the end of the week. Worth it? I'll let you decide.

Baked Ziti

Serves: 8

Active Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

For the sauce:

• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• One small onion
• 3-5 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you share my passion for garlic)
• 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage with casings removed
• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• Red chili flakes (optional)
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
• A hearty splash of your red wine pairing (1/2 cup)
• One 28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes (lightly crushed by hand or with a potato masher. Be careful. They will squirt.)
• One 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• One parmesan cheese rind (optional but recommended)
• One stem fresh basil
• Kosher salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste

Side note: I always double this recipe and freeze half because this just so happens to be the ultimate meat sauce that can be used for almost any pasta dish.

For the rest:

• 1 lb. ziti, farfalle, or tubular pasta
• 16 oz. low moisture full fat mozzarella cheese cut into 1 inch cubes
• 16 oz. cottage cheese (I know it’s weird, but trust me)
• As much fresh grated parmesan cheese as your heart desires (I recommend at least 3 oz.)
• Fresh chopped basil

DIRECTIONS:

For the sauce:

1. Add 2 tbsp. olive oil to a Dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat and allow this to warm up. Once heated, add chopped onions and sweat these for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add chopped garlic and chili flakes if using, and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute.)
2. Add the Italian sausage and ground beef. Break up the sausage and beef and allow it to brown for about 10 minutes over medium high heat. Once the meat is browned, remove any additional fat from the pot.
3. Add the tomato paste to the sausage mixture and stir for about one minute. Deglaze your pot with your red wine and stir. (Deglaze is just a fancy word to say add the wine and scrape up all the delicious browned bits stuck to the bottom of your pot.)
4. Add the San Marzano tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, parmesan cheese rind if using, and the stem of fresh basil. Cover the pot and bring this to a simmer. Turn the burner to low and allow this to simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer you can let this go, the better it will be. I recommend 1 and a half hour for peak deliciousness, but we don’t always have that kind of time, now do we?

For the rest:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil the pasta just shy of what package direction say will be al dente. You want the inside of the noodle to still have a little bit of chewiness because they will continue to cook in the oven.
3. In a bowl add cottage cheese, eggs, at least 2 oz. of parmesan cheese, as much chopped basil as you desire, and mix together.
4. Add the cottage cheese mixture, 3-4 cups of your meat sauce and 10 oz. of your cubed mozzarella to your pasta and stir to combine.
5. Put the pasta mixture in a baking dish or aluminum pan. Scoop additional sauce over the top of the pasta mixture(3 cups),then top with your remaining mozzarella cubes. Grate additional fresh parmesan on top (2 oz.) and cover the pan with foil. Place this baking dish on a baking tray (this will catch any of the deliciousness that may bubble over the side so that it doesn’t create a burned mess at the bottom of your oven.)
6. Bake this for 30 minutes covered and an additional 15 with the foil removed.
7. Enjoy this bubbly, cheesy, meaty, carby mess with some crusty bread and our lovely wine pairing.

Chianti

MY RECOMMENDATION:

Querceto- find it at Total Wine

WHY IT WORKS:

• This is a complimentary pairing- meaning that the flavors of the wine mimic the flavors of the pasta.
• Chianti is not a type of grape, but it is actually a region in Italy. All wine that comes out of Chianti is considered a “Chianti”.
• The grape varietals typically found in Chianti wines are Sangiovese and Merlot. Sangiovese is the primary grape and Merlot is sometimes added to provide structure and body.
• This wine has good acidity, which allows it to hold up nicely to the high level of acid that comes from the tomatoes in the meat sauce. Chianti is typically a high acid red wine.
• This wine has notes of bright cherries, strawberries and baking spices.
• If you can’t find this specific wine, try to find a Chianti with high acidity and similar tasting notes to what was earlier mentioned. If you find a wine that has “Sangiovese” on the label it will be a pretty safe bet that this will be good to pair with this pasta.

“Either give me more wine or leave me alone.”

— Rumi