Comfort Food On A Cold Wintery Day… Baked Ziti…
After constantly eating out for over a month, no matter how good the food is, we all crave a good home cooked meal. Today was that day and with the weather being so cold and not really wanting to go out, I decided to cook some pasta tonight for dinner. However, I wanted something more along the lines of comfort food, so I dug out a box of “Ziti” and decided to make some “Baked Ziti”.
I cook “Baked Ziti” as if I were cooking any other pasta and by that I mean, I decide what kind of sauce I want and ensure that sauce tastes great. I know a lot of home cooks who just buy a jar of marinara and will use that as is. Even if buying a jar of store bought marinara, anyone can make that sauce from mediocre to incredible by spending a few minutes doctoring it up by adding various fresh ingredients.
Tonight, I decided to spice it up and use Hot Italian Sausage but took the sausage out of the casing and crumbled it up, almost as if I was making a Bolognese. I sautéed this up and added a basic marinara sauce and let that simmer. I also added some fresh garlic, basil, oregano, parsley, dry red chili flakes, cracked black pepper and a pinch of kosher salt. After the ziti was cooked off, I reserved a few tablespoons of the “pasta water” and added it to the sauce.
I decided to use 8″ All-Clad sauté pans as my serving vessel since it’s both practical to put in the oven and I thought it would be kind of cute and fun. Served with some toasted Italian bread, it was a meal that was both delicious and filling.
hamatama 