Baked Ziti

Whew--almost didn't get my weekly post done! :) Seems like the past few days have been busy and every time I sit down to update it Parker wakes up, or it's time to start dinner, or ...etc., etc. But here it is! This week I tried another new recipe--Baked Ziti! Why baked ziti, you may or may not be asking? Well, I was talking to a friend recently about making some meals to freeze, so one night I started looking up recipes/meals that freeze well, and a blog popped up with this. It looked really good so I thought I'd try it and see how it turned out. Most ziti recipes I find use a jar of pre-made sauce and they're not my favorite but this one is all from scratch. Here's the website where I found the recipe: www.annies-eats.net/2009/07/02/baked-ziti/. I think it's actually from Cook's Illustrated.

Baked Ziti
1 lb. cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese, divided
table salt
1 lb. ziti
1 Tbsp. olive oil
20 oz. turkey sausage
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
5 med. garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 can (28 oz.) tomato sauce
1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil, divided
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream OR whole milk
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4" cubes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together cottage cheese, eggs and 1 cup parmesan; set aside. Boil a pot of water. Stir in a Tbsp. salt and the pasta. Cook until pasta softens, but is not cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. Drain and leave in colander.
Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add sausage and cook until almost browned. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft and the meat is thoroughly brown. Stir in tomato sauce, tomatoes and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup chopped basil and sugar. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
Stir together milk and cornstarch in a small pot. Cook until thickened, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir into cottage cheese mixture. Add 1 1/2 cups of the tomato sauce mixture and 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Add pasta and toss to coat thoroughly. Pour pasta into a 9x13 pan and spread remaining tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan and mozzarella.
Cover pan tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 30 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and begins to brown. Let stand for a few minutes before serving. Sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbsp. basil.

I only made a few little changes... I decided to make it without meat and it was still very filling! I used egg noodles rather than ziti, and I used whole milk, which didn't really thicken with the cornstarch but it seemed to work fine anyway. And rather than make a 9x13 pan, which is way too much for the two of us, I put it into two smaller pans and froze one of them. I wanted to see how it tastes after being frozen/thawed. Other than that I followed the original recipe and it was pretty good. I love the fresh garlic and basil--makes a big difference in taste! :)

I'd like to make some other meals for the freezer, too. It's wonderful when you can have a home-cooked meal already made and ready to put in the oven after a long day! :)