I thought today I’d make a Baked Ziti. Baked Ziti is just a pasta and cheese casserole. I used home made tomato sauce and home made ricotta cheese so it taste better. Half the cheese I kept plain and half was a seasoned spinach mixture. I didn’t want to just mix it all up and bake it so I used a pastry bag and just squirted the cheese mixture into the pasta in random spots. This way it is almost lasagna-like.

This recipe makes about 15 servings that freeze well.

1 lb twisted or hollow pasta- cooked two minutes less from package directions ( I used campanelle)

4 cups tomato sauce – preferably home made – plus extra for serving ( a recipe link for tomato sauce is at the bottom of this page)

4 cups ricotta cheese – preferably home made (easy to make but it takes an hour….recipe many places on this site)

13 oz Italian blend cheese – divide in thirds (my blend is hand shredded mozzarella, parmesan, mild provolone and sharp provolone)

4 eggs (one goes in each bowl of ricotta and two go in with the pasta)

5 oz fresh spinach

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

fresh crushed sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 garlic clove – ground to paste or microplane

pinch ground black pepper (for ricotta)

pinch dried oregano (for ricotta)

non stick spray

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F and spray a large casserole pan or a 1/2 pan with non stick spray and set pan to the side. Also spray aluminum foil on one side with non stick spray. (the sprayed side will go on top of the pasta).

Get out one large bowl, two medium sized bowls (one should be microwaveable).

In the large bowl combine the pasta, the sauce, one third of the Italian blend cheese and two eggs mix well and dump into large sprayed pan. Set to the side.

In the microwavable bowl add the spinach. Top the spinach with salt and pepper to taste. sprinkle the olive oil over the spinach and add the garlic. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave 2 minutes. This will be steamy so be careful and remove the plastic wrap. Mix well. This is one of the bowls that you will be adding the ricotta cheese to.

Two cups of ricotta go into each of the two bowls. Each bowl gets a beaten egg and each bowl gets 1/2 a pinch of pepper and 1/2 a pinch oregano. Mix well and set to the side.

Get out a pastry bag. If it’s a disposable one cut off the end about 3/4 of an inch. fill with ricotta cheese mixture and randomly squirt it into the pan of pasta. Repeat till done. Cover with sprayed foil and this goes in the oven for 75 minutes.

When it comes out it looks like this.

“Serve with extra sauce and parmesan!”

For best results you must use home made cheese and home made sauce.