Saturday, December 28, 2019

Easy Baked Ziti Casserole

Easy Cheesy Baked Ziti

(Recipe and picture from The Country Cook). This has become a staple in our house and is super delicious. If I'm feeding more than our crowd, I'll double and put in a huge casserole pan and it works great!

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 (32 oz) jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
  • 1 (16 oz) jar alfredo sauce
  • 1 lb penne pasta (or ziti or rigatoni)
  • ½ yellow onion, diced
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
  • Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with nonstick spray.
  • Prepare pasta according to directions.
  • In a medium sauce pan, brown ground beef with onion (if using).
  • After beef is brown and crumbled, drain excess grease.
  • Put back in pot and pour in one jar of spaghetti sauce.
  • Keep mixture on low until pasta is done.
  • When pasta is finished, drain excess water from pasta. You want the pasta as dry as possible.
  • Put pasta back in large pot (with heat off) and pour in jar of alfredo sauce. Combine until thoroughly coated.
  • Pour pasta mixture into bottom of 9 x 13 dish.
  • Cover pasta with spaghetti sauce mixture.
  • Don’t put the pot that you used for the spaghetti sauce in with the dirty dishes yet. Keep that pot out and start heating up second jar of spaghetti sauce on low heat. Put a cover on it to keep warm until ziti is finished baking.
  • Sprinkle top with mozzarella cheese.
  • Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.
  • Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly. Let rest for about 5 minutes after taking out of oven.
  • Serve portions onto plates, and pour some of the heated spaghetti sauce on top.