More Casserole-y Goodness

I love lasagna (well, I love my mom's lasagna, no other, including my own, measures up). However, I'm lazy. The big lasagna noodles are clunky to work with, and all the layers is just too much work. So what's a lasagna lovin' guy supposed to do? He cheats, of course. This recipe is pretty close to my lasagna, I just switch up the noodles.

Baked Ziti

The Ingredients:

• 8 oz ziti
• 1 lb ground sausage
• 1/2 c finely chopped onions
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 c tomato sauce
• 12 oz ricotta
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 c mozzarella cheese, shredded

The Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the pasta as per directions on the box.

Brown the sausage over medium-high heat in a 12" frying pan. Once browned, add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft. Drain if necessary and return to the pan. Add the tomato sauce and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Combine this mixture thoroughly with the pasta, set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, parmesan cheese and oregano.

Scoop about half of the pasta/sausage/sauce mixture into an 8x8" pan. Add the cheese mixture by the spoonful on top of the pasta and smooth out. Scoop the remaining pasta/sausage/sauce mixture on top, then top with mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil and bake for an hour at 350 degrees, removing the foil for the last 15 minutes.

Serves 4-6

Notes:

I didn't actually use ziti for my baked ziti, since it was literally double the price of mostaccioli. Since it was roughly the same size and shape, I didn't figure it mattered. I used sweet italian sausage, because Amy isn't a big fan of spicy sausage. I also made my own ricotta, but I'll post about that the next time I make it. All in all, this turned out well. Happy had seconds! Come to think of it, he had seconds the last time I made a casserole, too. Hrm, I'm sensing a pattern...