Baked Ziti

This is hands down my family's favorite pasta dish. I usually make a big batch and freeze some for later. You can make it with your favorite homemade marinara sauce or use your favorite jarred sauce. It's a great one to make for company. Serve with caesar salad and garlic bread.

Baked Ziti

1 lb. spicy italian sausage

1 lb. dry ziti pasta

1.5 jars of marinara sauce (about 36 oz.)

6 oz. sliced provolone cheese

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup ricotta (I don't always have ricotta on hand--it tastes just as good without it).

6 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 baking dish with olive oil.

Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, brown sausage in a saute pan. Drain if needed, then add marinara sauce and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Drain pasta it is done cooking.

In a baking dish spread 3/4 cup of meat mixture on bottom of dish. Layer 1/2 of the cooked pasta, provolone cheese, sour cream, ricotta and a little less than 1/2 of the remaining meat mixture. Layer the rest of the pasta, mozzarella, meat mixture and parmesan cheese.

Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and cook another 10 minutes until heated through and cheeses are melted.

To freeze: cover dish with foil and freeze. Once it is frozen you can pop it out of the pan and put in a freezer bag. To heat--thaw first. Allow an additional 20 minutes baking time.

Optional: Omit sausage and add mushrooms and diced/shredded zucchini in its place. Or just add them to sneak in some veggies!

Serves 6-8

Orecchiette with Mozzarella and Tomatoes

My mother-in-law came to visit last week and brought this delicious and simple recipe with her. Like most pastas, it was even better as lunch leftovers the second day. It uses really basic ingredients I usually have on hand, so I'm adding it to my repertoire of "Oh Shit Meals" (as in "Oh, shit! It's 6:00 and I haven't figured out dinner!")

Orecchiette pasta look a little like slightly smooshed pasta shells. I think shells could be used in a pinch, but the orecchiette look a little fancier, sound a little fancier, and maybe hold the sauce a little better? At least that's what we tell ourselves to justify our trips to three different grocery stores to find it. I bought a few extra boxes for the pantry.

Orecchiette with Mozzarella and Tomatoes

1 lb. orecchiette pasta

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

pinch of red pepper flakes

4 to 5 large roma tomatoes, seeded or

2 cups grape tomatoes, halved or

1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained

1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

8 oz. fresh mozzarella, diced

kosher or sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Optional: spicy italian chicken sausage

Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. When pasta has about 5 minutes left to cook, heat olive oil over medium low heat in a large saute pan. Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes until fragrant and softened. Add tomatoes and red pepper flakes and heat through, stirring often about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add basil. Add drained pasta directly to the sauce pan and stir to coat. Pour into serving bowl. Add mozzarella and toss to combine. Season to taste and serve.

Optional: If using sausage, start with browning italian sausage in the saute pan. Drain if needed. Then add olive oil and cook garlic. Continue with directions for sauce above.

Pasta Fagioli

So a friend of mine used to make this for us years ago. He lived in Italy for a while and picked up some delicious authentic recipes. Pasta Fagioli translates to "pasta and beans." In the winter, this counts as a 'poor man's meal' or pantry meal for me if I use canned tomatoes. But if tomatoes are in season, you should definitely use them! This makes my whole house smell like heaven with fresh tomatoes and basil in the summer.

The recipe calls for adding the dry noodles to the sauce. I prefer to cook the noodles in a pot of salted water separately while the sauce is simmering so I don't have to "babysit" them quite so much.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Garlic

Sweet Onion

Basil

Tomatoes

Canned Cannellini/Great Northern beans (reserve a few for a garnishing the top of each bowl)

Salt and Pepper

Spaghetti noodles

In your blender or food processor combine: 3 T. olive oil, 2 springs of basil, 3 medium size tomatoes or 5 small tomatoes, 2 gloves of garlic, 1/2 cup onion. Blend.

Add: 1 can of great northern beans, rinsed. Salt and Pepper to taste. Blend. The beans absorb alot of the salt, so be generous with the salt.

Pour sauce into large stock pot and cook on medium. Reduce heat and allow sauce to simmer. Sauce will change from pinkish-orange to redish-orange. Once sauce is simmering add noodles.

When I add my noodles, I like to break them in half. Place right on top of sauce, then, take about 2 cups of water and pour into pot just covering noodles. Stir periodically on simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes ~ until water is absorbed.

Serve with generous helping of shredded parmesan cheese, the reserved beans, and a little extra basil.