Fabio's Super-Fast Baked Ziti

Chow Ciao

Batch-cook an amazing comfort food for the whole family! Fabio's out-of-control comfort platter is an easy to make yet deeply flavored, multi-sauced baked ziti.

Tips:

  • Pasta 101: Choose your dry pasta by shape based on what you're making. Use smaller pastas like ditalini for broths and soups, elbow pasta for mac and cheese, and penne rigati or fusilli with ridges to help hold your sauces. The bigger rigatoni is also good for holding sauce, since it's hollow and large. Ziti is the best pasta for baking because not only is it hollow and holds the sauce inside it, but it also doesn't have any ridges or groove to sog out your dish.

  • When baking pasta make sure it is al dente! The trick is to finish cooking the pasta in the sauce the oven. So boil it halfway and let it have some crunch to it before baking.

  • Ziti is comfort food made fast, but it helps to prepare. Having Fabio's béchamel and Bolognese (meat sauce) batch cooked and in your fridge makes preparing this ultimate comfort food a cinch.

  • Top your ziti with drier cheeses like shredded (dry) mozzarella. This will ensure you have a crispy crust on the outside of the pasta. Heaven in a bite.

Baked ziti
Baked ziti

Baked Ziti

Recipe by Fabio Viviani

Yields: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

1 lb. dried ziti or penne pasta

2 cups Fabio's Italian meat sauce

2 cups Fabio's Béchamel sauce

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup mozzarella

Method:

Preheat oven to lowest Broil setting

Bring a pot of salted water to boil, and cook pasta for about 5-6 minutes.

Toss pasta with the Italian Meat sauce, béchamel sauce, and Parmesan cheese until pasta is well coated.

Pour into an ungreased baking dish, and cover the top with mozzarella cheese.

Bake in the oven until cheese is golden brown and bubbly.

Remove from oven and let rest before serving.

MANGIA!