Baked ziti

The other day I was feeling industrious, and decided to make a dish that I don't make often, due to Ava's food allergies. After popping into Whole Foods for the ingredients needed, I set to work making fresh ricotta cheese (recipe below)and tomato sauce. Both are so easy and they elevate any recipe. Each time I make tomato sauce it's slightly different, but that day I added fresh parsley and basil from my garden, lots of kosher salt and cracked black pepper, a few red pepper flakes, and some minced garlic and onions that I sauteed in olive oil.

Normally ziti is a meatless recipe, but my crew loves fresh sausage in just about anything, and I've been trying hard to protein load, so I got a few links of mild Italian sausage and sliced them thinly, then sauteed them with fresh spinach and some of the minced garlic and onions that I made for my sauce.

While I'd love to say that I made the pasta from scratch, I definitely did not! I did get fresh mozzarella, which is honestly one of my favorite foods in life, and cubed most of it and grated some too, trying hard not to eat the majority of it before putting it into the pan.

When each component was made, I layered all the ingredients like this: sauce, pasta, spinach, sausage, ricotta cheese, sauce, and mozzarella, both the cubed and the shredded. I baked it for about fifteen minutes and watched the boys and Greg go nuts for it.

Ava had Tinkyada brown rice spirals with sauce, spinach, and sausage, and she really enjoyed hers too.

My recipe made quite a bit of ricotta, more than I needed for the ziti dish, so for a few days after I'd eat it off the spoon plain or with a slice of pear. So delicious! It's also really great on a toast point with a basil leaf or even plain. Try it, you'll be glad you did.

Creamy Ricotta
Active: 20 Minutes

Total: 3 Hours

Makes about 3 1/2 cups

2 quarts whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

3T white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.

In a medium pot, warm the milk and cream over moderately high heat until the surface becomes foamy and steamy; don't let the milk boil. Remove the pot from heat. Add the vinegar and gently stir for 30 seconds; the mixture will curdle almost immediately. Add the salt and stir for 30 seconds longer. Cover the pot with a clean towel and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.


Line a large colander with several layers of cheesecloth, allowing several inches of overhang. Set the colander in a large bowl. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the curds to the colander. Carefully gather the corners of the cheesecloth and close with a rubber band. Let the ricotta stand for 30 minutes, gently pressing and squeezing the cheesecloth occasionally to drain off the whey. Transfer the ricotta to a bowl and use at once, or cover and refrigerate.



Fresh ricotta can be refrigerated up to 3 days.