Baked Ziti

Actually, as you can see from the picture, it’s baked rigatoni. Blame fancy Whole Foods and their lack of ziti for whatever reason. But the biggest triumph of tonight’s meal was that I kept to my meal plan!!

Actually, my biggest triumph was making my own marinara, thanks to my readers’ encouragement. I owe it to Elizabeth, Mel & Susan. Thanks, ladies!

This ended up tasting very like the Linguine Marinara at Gordon Biersch. Ryan and I love that dish, so this didn’t disappoint. I took a little inspiration from here and there, but this recipe is pretty much mine.

Ingredients:

- 16 oz. ziti (or in my case, rigatoni)

- 2 T olive oil

- 4-5 cloves garlic, minced

- 1/4 medium white onion

- 1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes (the kind I got had basil in it)

- 2 T oregano

- 2 T crushed red pepper

- 1 lb fresh mozzarella – cube half of the mozzarella and thinly slice the other half

- 3/4 cup parmesan

- salt to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the pasta and set aside. In a sauce pan, heat oil, garlic, and chopped onion on medium high heat until slightly brown. Add the diced tomatoes and herbs and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Pour pasta, cubed mozzarella, and 1/2 cup of parmesan into the sauce. Mix well.

Pour into a 9×13 baking dish. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of parmesan on top, and then finish with sliced mozzarella to evenly cover the pasta.

Bake for 20 minutes or until warm and slightly browned. Eat immediately.

I served it with some garlic bread I whipped up quickly, and we will continue to enjoy this dish until at least lunch tomorrow. Hooray for leftovers!

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