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Cooking @ Home: Pasta for the win
Baked Ziti dish comes together quickly for an easy midweek meal
When it comes to midweek cooking, I often turn to pasta dishes. They come together quickly, they feed a crowd, and it’s easy to make them a complete meal with a few additions. It takes just 20 minutes to get in the oven, and then bakes for another 30. In less than an hour, dinner is ready for the family.
Some recipes say that you need to buy expensive ingredients or make all your ingredients from scratch for a quality final dish. I reject that premise. I believe it’s best to prioritize layering flavors all throughout the dish. For my money, you get much more bang for your buck concentrating on that idea than you do spending more on “premium” ingredients and relying on them to do the heavy lifting.
The first layer is the fond — the caramelized browned bits that build up on the bottom of the pan as you brown the Italian sausage. If the heat isn’t too high, that becomes a delicious flavor instead of a burned one, and you want to make sure that flavor ends up in the sauce. It’ll be stuck onto the bottom of the pan, but it’ll release a little when you add layer 2, the onion and the red bell pepper and salt. Then the rest should come up easily when you add layer 3, the beef bouillon — as it starts to simmer that fond will release like magic with just a quick swipe with a wooden spoon.
The last note is to be sure to take the pasta out of the water when it is underdone. “Do you mean al dente?” No, I mean when you could technically consider it food again, but if you were served it at a restaurant, you would immediately send it back. It’s going to continue to cook and absorb liquid from the sauce in the oven and if you cook it to al dente now, it’ll be poltiglia (which Google tells me is Italian for “mush”) when it’s done cooking.
I was extremely happy with the way this dish came out and I hope you’ll enjoy it, too. It hits you with a nice tomato and cheese flavor, but the bouillon and red pepper add some richness and complexity that are very welcome.
Alex Gallegos is an enthusiastic home cook who enjoys trying new recipes and learning new techniques. Find this recipe and others like it at platefulsofflavors.com.
Recipe
Baked Ziti
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients
1 pound Italian sausage
1 medium yellow onion diced fine
1 large red bell pepper diced fine
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 clove garlic
1 cup beef stock or prepared bouillon
2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
1 14-ounce can diced tomato
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 16-ounce package ziti pasta, undercooked
15 ounces ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Bring water to a boil and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown sausage and crumble over high heat. Depending on how much fat is in the sausage, there may be enough rendered out of the sausage but, if the pan looks dry, add a tablespoon of olive oil.
Add onions, bell pepper, and salt, and saute over medium high heat until vegetables are tender. Add garlic and cook just until fragrant, then deglaze pan with beef bouillon.
By this time, the water should be boiling. Start the pasta in the boiling water.
In the pan with the meat and vegetables, add the tomato paste, and cook for a minute until it brightens in color. Reduce the heat, then add the canned tomatoes. Stir frequently and bring to a simmer. Add the dried basil.
Continue to simmer until the pasta is just finished — pull pasta when it still is undercooked.
Stir the pasta and a few splashes of the pasta water into the sauce to reach desired consistency.
Assemble in layers. Start with half pasta and sauce mixture, half the ricotta, then top with half the parsley, half the Parmesan, and half the mozzarella. Season layer with salt and pepper, then repeat all layers.
Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes.
Source: Alex Gallegos, platefulsofflavors.com
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