HomemadeTurbo - DIY Turbo Forum - Delicious Baked Ziti

Ingredients:

- 1lb ground beef (I get ground sirloin from the butcher's case, costs the same as the leanest ground beef)
- one whole yellow onion, diced
- 8 ounces button (common) mushrooms, sliced
- 1 clove fresh garlic, minced
- fresh basil, chopped
- large can/normal plastic container of tomato sauce
- 16 ounce container of ziti
- Mozzarella cheese
- the usual salt/pepper/etc

Start out by browning the ground sirloin/beef in a large pan, drain the excess water/fat. Add garlic, onions, onions, mushrooms. If you can't figure out how to get this far you are ------- stupid.

Open your marinara/sauce of choice:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/625515-1.jpg

Mix the sauce into the ground beef mixture - after beef is browned and drained, this is the only pic I had:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/Photo_11.jpg

Next, chop up some fresh basil. I love fresh basil. It makes the ziti taste fresh, and lends a natural sweetness.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/Photo_12.jpg

Add the basil to the sauce, let it simmer on low heat:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/Photo_13.jpg

Now, while the sauce is cooking, let's start the ziti itself. It's important to UNDERCOOK the ziti since it will be spending 25-45 minutes in the oven, most ziti directions say 8 minutes vs the "normal" 10 minute pasta cook time, but I prefer less than that.

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Bang bang boogie:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/Photo_15.jpg

Now, while the ziti simmers, slice up your block of mozzarella into thin slabs, or just use grated. I prefer the slabs as they make everything super cheesy, but I also stole some grated from Hitchhikkr as I am an -------. That's how I roll:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/Photo_16.jpg

When the ziti is cooked - drain it - and put half of it into a deep baking or casserole dish. Pour half of the sauce on top of it, and layer that with half of the cheese. Put the other half of the ziti on top of this, finish it with the last of the sauce, and then top with the rest of the cheese. It should look like this:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/Photo_17.jpg

Now, if you are immediately tossing this into the oven go for 325-350 degrees for ~25 minutes, until the cheese is a nice golden brown. I've "prepared" ziti to this stage before + then stuck it into the oven for the kid to cook when she gets hungry; when cold it takes more like 45 minutes for the ziti to cook through. The finished product should look like this:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...i/Photo_18.jpg