Baked Ziti

I have a friend who was returning from a trip to the UK and I knew she would have no food in her house. She loves Italian food so I thought I would make her some ziti. Then I figured I might as well feed my other friends too. It is just as easy to make tons of ziti as it is to make one container.


I started with several pound of ground beef to make meatballs. I also mixed in 1 pound of Italian sausage.


While I made the meatballs I sauteed the pancetta.


I added crushed crackers, granulated garlic, diced onion, fresh parsley, 2 eggs and some salt and pepper.


Mix this together very thoroughly.


Dice as much garlic as you like.


I always make my sauce using some sort of pork. I had 2 smoked pork chops so I browned them in the leftover pancetta grease.


Then I sauteed the garlic until it turned golden.


Cook the meatballs, turning often, until they are evenly browned. Remove them and set them aside for a bit.


Stir in 3 large (28 oz.) cans of crushed tomatoes. These measurements are changed depending on how much you are making. Add 1 large can of tomato paste. Add salt and pepper to taste. This sauce gets a lot of it's flavor from the meat.


Add in the crisp pancetta, meatballs and pork. Place this in a 325 degree oven for an hour.


I made some semolina bread to go with the final dish.


Prepare the ricotta buy dumping all of it in a large bowl and adding salt, pepper, grated romano cheese, 3 raw eggs, oregano and granulated garlic. Mix this thoroughly.


Boil your pasta until just al dente.


This is the sauce after an hour of cooking.


This is a great recipe to use up leftover cheese. I had some Boursin so I added it and stirred it in.


Dice up lots of Provolone cheese.


I grated some extra Asiago that I had too. Add both cheeses to the pasta and stir around.


Mix some of the sauce with the pasta.


Put some sauce in the bottom of your dishes. Top with a layer of pasta and then a layer of ricotta.


Top with another layer of pasta, sauce and sprinkle with some grated Parmesan.


Bread fresh from the oven.


The ziti bakes at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

These freeze very well too!