Nothing says you’ve lost your youth and freedom successfully entered adulthood better than your first baked ziti. One moment you’re waking up at 10:30 on a Sunday morning muttering, “My God, what did I do last night?”; the next you’re on the phone and you say to a friend, “That sounds great! I’d love to see your new apartment. Saturday? I’ll bring a baked ziti.” Before you know it you’re practically eating nothing but, more housewarmings, babies come along so all entertaining must be done in situ, office parties, pot lucks, there are wakes to attend, family reunions, high school and college graduation parties, you name it. Of all the hundreds of times I’ve been to Italian restaurants I don’t think I’ve ever ordered ziti in one, yet of all Italian food I’ve consumed over lo these many years, aside from Italo-American pizza, it’s probably what I’ve eaten the most of. This recipe feeds two, approximately; I scaled this down from my usual output.
8 oz. ziti
16 oz. marinara sauce. Try to get a garlicky one, because
4 oz. (half a bar) of cream cheese, room temp. You can also use an herbed version, which usually comes in tubs.
8 oz. shredded mozzarella
4 — 6 oz. parmesan cheese, grated
Some chopped basil leaves
Boil the ziti in a pot to al dente. Drain and leave in the colander.
Get out a baking dish, something about 8″ X 8″. Spray it if it’s not non-stick but I usually forget this. Heat an oven to 375 degrees.
In the pasta pot, add the marinara and the cream cheese and heat until the cheese melts and you get a sauce. Stir this so the cheese combines. Dump the ziti back into the pot and stir it around, so the pasta gets nice and coated. Turn the heat off and move the pot to a different burner. Put half of this pasta mixture into the baking dish, add 1/2 the mozzarella, and sprinkle on some parmesan. Add a few chopped basil leaves. Repeat, but no basil leaves and save some of the parmesan. Cover the dish and bake for 20–25 minutes. Remove the cover and let it keep baking for another 10–15 minutes. The great thing about this recipe is you don’t need to worry about food poisoning via undercooked food; you’re doing this make the cheese get all melty, the sauce to bubble, and for the top to get a little thick, maybe even a little crisp. If the top starts turning a dark brown stop immediately. Take it out, put it back on the stovetop, sprinkle with some more basil, and shake a spoonful or two or three of more grated parmesan over the top. Let it rest for a few minutes and serve. The reason why this is such a pot-luck favorite is it refrigerates really well and as long as your destination has an oven they can spare for a few minutes you can warm it up there. Don’t make this too far in advance, though. 24 hours max.
Yum! Supposed adult here, I still haven’t baked or eaten ziti before.
Would Boursin work instead of cream cheese?
If I wanted to add meat, what would you recommend? Ground beef? Sausage meat?
Salsiccia is what I would recommend. It tends to run fatty though, so either be excited about the pork fat or drain before adding. 🙂
Hi Mattie!
@HammerZeitgeist, I think that Boursin would be fine. As for the meat, that probably turns this into a different dish, but as long as you crumble and brown a ground meat of choice, I think that you can mix it into the sauce and enjoy it (I wouldn’t layer it as you will do with the cheese).
I had a pasta dish teed up for Friday’s FYCE, with eggplant. I can do something else if that’s too much pasta for one week. Either the swiss chard or a fennel recipe I’m going to try. Any requests?
I need ideas for how to dispose of the damned eggplant and Swiss chard, so do one for this Friday and another for your next scheduled slot. I will be eternally grateful.
I would argue there’s never too much pasta. I would happily eat pasta every day.
@Sedevilc, there is NEVER too much pasta. But you make whatever pleases you, we foodies are appreciative.
EXCUSE ME
LIES
“Nothing says you’ve
lost your youth and freedomsuccessfully entered adulthood better than your first baked ziti.”Those of us in the Midwest were weaned on baked pasta dishes because casserole is a base on the food pyramid here.
Some of us were baking ziti before we had drivers licenses.
I mean, I was going to say the same thing as a born and bred Masshole. Lasagnas were more common, but baked ziti/rigatoni was everywhere. Maybe it’s the huge Boston Italian thing? No idea, but I definitely made a baked ziti before college.
That said, I’ve never made one with cream cheese instead of ricotta. I bet it’d be good though, I might just try it out this way.
Channel your inner Midwesterner. That means your grocery store didn’t always have that fancy “ricotta” tub of stuff and it’s strange…different….who knows what it really is…. mentality!
Lasagnas aren’t nearly as common because ugh so much more work. Mostaccioli or baked ziti is waaaaay easier to assemble and serve. Pretty sure every single wedding and party I went to had trays of mostaccioli.
Oh, absolutely baked ziti is a million times easier than lasagna, but for whatever reason, lasagna was much more of a thing when I was growing up.
I have never before heard of mostaccioli. Looking it up, it appears to be both a pasta shape similar to penne, and the name for the baked pasta dish with it. I guess that’s like lasagna too though.
You know what the Fareway/Hy-Vee/Schnucks/Meijer ALWAYS has and what you probably already have 2 blocks of in the fridge for other casseroles? Cream cheese! So fancy! You can make those soft tortilla appetizer pinwheels with them! You can mix some with mayonnaise to make a ranch dip for your veggies at the bbq! You can make one of those fancy cheese-balls to use on the good crackers (Ritz or Club, depending on your family traditions)! Need to make your tuna casserole better? Cream cheese!
tl;dr we’re stunningly predictable with some ingredients in the Midwest