Baked Ziti

Ingredients:

1 pound ziti pasta
1 pound fresh mozzarella
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound sweet italian sausage
1/2 pound hot italian sausage
1/2 medium onion
4 cloves of garlic
28-ounce can whole peeled marzano tomatoes
1 can marzano tomato paste
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Basil

Get the real deal sausage. I got it at AJ's, if you're out west you can find it there. Remove the casings and crumble...

Step 1:

Crumbled. Add two teaspoons of olive oil, and proceed to browning...

Step 2:

Now for the sauce ingredients. Use real Italian San Marzano tomatoes - seriously, this makes all the difference in the world. Doesn't have to be grown in Italy either.

Step 3:

Puree it (not too much).

Step 4:

Cut your onion.

Step 5:

Gather your other fresh spices - also, go fresh. Pictured here: basil, thyme, garlic.

Step 6:

Judo chop!

Step 7:

Add onions and garlic to now-browned sausage. Cook for a few more minutes until transparent.

Step 8:

Add your tomato puree.

Step 9:

Add your chopped spices. Stir this up and let it simmer on low for 10 minutes.

Step 10:

Time to get the pasta boiling.

Step 11:

I'm not one of those snobs that says you have to have boiling water first... but make sure your pasta doesn't stick together while cooking. Add some olive oil to aid in this process.

Step 12:

Using real deal cheeses is a must. Grate your own parmesan, and get FRESH mozarella. You can tell the difference. It's wet and sweet like ricotta.

Step 13:

Cut the mozarella half of it into 1/2 inch cubes, the other half in as thin of slices as you can manage.

Step 14:

Add a can of tomato paste to your sauce to thicken it up and give it a lively red color and more intense flavor.

Step 15:

mmm...

Step 16:

Pasta should be "al dente" - tender, but firm. Avoid soggy, you still have to bake it some. And wash your pasta!

Step 17:

Add the pasta, your sauce, the mozarella and half the parmesan in a baking dish. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Add a pinch of the pepper flakes.

Step 18:

Mix it all up...

Step 19:

Top with the sliced mozarella and the remainder of the parmesan.

Bake this bad boy for about 30 minutes until golden...

Step 20:

All Done!