Ziti on the fly

My sister had found a recipe for baked ziti and kept mentioning how good it sounded. I am not sure if that was a hint to me to make it for her or what, but I decided to go ahead and make some since I had never made it before. I looked at about 10 different recipes and they all had the same concept but different ingredients. So I took the basic concept and went with it.

The end result was a saucy, cheesy, meaty, noodle filled dish that was sure to delight. My husband and I enjoyed it very much and I will definitely have to make it again. Since we are used to just ground beef in pasta dishes that we really loved the taste difference that the sausage added. Thumbs up all around.

And by the way Cassi, I will save some for you so you can satisfy your baked ziti craving. :)

Baked Ziti
(Source: Amber's Delectable Delights)

Ingredients:
1 box (16 oz) Ziti pasta
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb pork sausage
Salt, black pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes (all to taste)
12 oz cottage cheese (or ricotta if you prefer)
1/2 cup (4 oz) mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
8 slices provolone cheese

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 casserole dish.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, season water with salt, boil pasta till al dente; drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile brown sausage and ground beef in skillet and season with desired amounts of salt, black pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes. Drain excess grease away from meats and return back to skillet. Add the jar of spaghetti sauce and let simmer until you are ready to assemble the dish.
- Place enough sauce mixture on the bottom of the pan so the noodles won't stick. Then assemble the rest of the dish- half of the cooked noodles, all of the cottage cheese, 4 slices of provolone cheese, 1/2 of the remaining sauce, remaining noodles, half of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, remaining sauce, remaining cheese.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Let set 10 minutes to cool before serving.