Baked Ziti with Sausage

I haven't posted many recipes recently as a result of a ridiculously filled calendar. I was out of town for three weekends in November and have had something planned every weekend since the end of October. My calendar will not be empty again until mid-January. The upside to the insanely packed calendar is that it has been filled with fun plans. As of now, there are no travel plans on the horizon so cooking and blogging will resume again.

Over the weekend, I had a craving for more comfort foods. I was perusing back issues of Cooking Light and came across the recipe for Baked Ziti. This is a very basic dish, but it is a wonderful dinner to eat on a cold day. It does not require a lot of preparation nor many ingredients. The payoff for this easy dinner, is that it is a yummy comfort food.

1 pound ziti

1 pound of hot Italian turkey sausage

1 chopped onion

2 minced garlic cloves

2 (14.5) ounce cans of petite diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste (The original recipe called for 1 tbspn)

salt and pepper to your tasting

1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese

1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese (You could buy the store packaged cheese or go with the fresh and shred that. I went for the fresh, to make the shredding easier for me with the soft cheese, I froze it first)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.


2. Bake the past according the package directions. Drain and set aside.


3. While water is boiling and pasta is cooking, chop the onion, remove the sausage from the casings, and mince the garlic. Heat these ingredients over medium heat until sausage browns.


4. Add the tomatoes and tomato past, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.


5. While the tomato mixture is cooking, prepare the cheeses.


6. After tomato mixture is cooked, add in the pasta and stir.


7. Coat a 4 quart baking dish with cooking spray. Add in half the pasta mixture and top with half the cheese. Add in the remaining pasta and top with remaining cheese.


8. Bake in oven for 30 minutes.