Baked Ziti

Well I made it to Day 2. And Yes i am proud of myself for that!! November 2nd and 2nd post!! One day closer to reaching my goal of posting every day this month! So tonight I finally made the Baked Ziti I have been talking about for weeks. And it came out so delicious!!!

I might not make a traditional Baked Ziti for some. I use chop meat and pepperoni in my sauce. First I brown the chop meat and then drain the fat out. Next I slice up pepperoni and add that into the pan just for a few minutes so the pepperoni gets a little soft. I use sliced pepperoni but then I cut that in half just to make the pieces smaller so that when you are eating it will not over power a mouthful.

 After that has seasoned up and I add some seasonings into the meat, I add in some tomato paste, diced tomatoes, pureed tomatoes and some more seasoning, basil, parsley, and some others.

Of course during this time I have the rigatoni going in the boiling water to cook them to al dente perfection.

Once the rigatoni is almost done I start adding the ricotta, and shredded cheeses to the sauce mixture and stirring that up together.

Then after the pasta is drained I toss it into the sauce. This is why I like to use a 5qt saute pan with straight edges, I can accomplish all of this in the one pan.

Next i toss this into a 13x9 glass dish and then cover with some more finely shredded mozzarella cheese

Now the oven was preheating while I was working on the stove top, and this goes in the oven for about a half hour or so. While this was cooking I even washed all my dishes!!! There is nothing in the kitchen I can't stand more than a pot or pan that sat with sauce in it. That just makes things a million times harder to clean and such a pain. So might as well do a little wish wish wash while it is warm and it just comes right out!!

Now this is done!! What a perfect dinner!!! Might have some for lunch tomorrow and I will take half of the tray and put in Ziploc bags portioned out, and freeze those. I don't want this to turn into the meal of the week and discourage me from cooking some more. Well maybe this will be dinner tomorrow and then I can spend more time on baking something different maybe those Cake Pops finally... Guess you will have to tune back in tomorrow to see!!!

Don't forget to check me out on Facebook Kay Kay's Cooking Just started on there so cut me a little slack. Still working on getting it all together!! I was planning on making some frosting roses but couldn't find frosting rose nails or gum paste and the gum paste tools in the store in the Wilton section, one day I will go to Michael's or finally get it from my Amazon wish list, lol. Thought they would be really cool to learn how to make to top off my cupcakes or Cake Pops! Just something to look forward to!! Now we just get to see how creative I can be in the meanwhile!! :) Good Night ! :)