After I had my 5th baby, a good friend of mine brought over this meal of baked ziti to our house. It was the favorite meal of the three or four meals that people brought over. So of course, I asked her for the recipe!
The nice thing about this dish is that you can either cook it and eat it right away, or you can freeze it for later. This recipe makes a great big dish. It will fit in a 13″ x 9″ casserole dish, but it is almost overflowing! So although the size is great for a really big family or for company, it is too much for our family. So I had a brainstorm!
I split the recipe between two 11″ x 7″ pans. I just put the two 11″ x 7″ casserole dishes next to each other and prepared it according to the recipe directions like it was one big dish.
I made two 11″x7″ pan
I baked one for dinner, and the other I froze for later! Genius, right? Well–that’s taking it a little too far, but I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.
One pan is ready for dinner, and the other pan will go in the freezer.
The one dish did feed us, but it all went. I think next time, I might cook more ziti noodles (maybe 1 1/4 pounds-1 1/2 pounds) as my girls love the noodles, but they aren’t big on the meat. I think there is enough sauce and meat to keep those measurements the same.
Ready to eat!
Recipe for Baked Ziti
Baking Time Required: 30 minutes. Preheat oven @ 350
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 pound ziti
- 2-26 ounce jars spaghetti sauce
- 8 ounces provolone cheese shredded
- 1 pound sour cream
- 8 ounces mozzarella cheese shredded
- parmesan cheese
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Brown the ground beef and onion (chopped).
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Cook and drain ziti pasta.
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Add both jars of spaghetti sauce to the pasta and simmer for 15 minutes. Put half of the pasta mixture in a 13” x 9” pan.
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Place 8 ounces of shredded provolone cheese on top of pasta.
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Spread 1 pound of sour cream over the cheese.
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Place one-half of the meat on top of the sour cream.
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Put the rest of the pasta on top of the meat.
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Place 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese on top of the meat.
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Put the remaining meat on top of the mozzarella cheese.
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Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese.
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Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. (This can be frozen before cooking. Place in refrigerator the night before to defrost. Bake until hot--will probably take longer to cook.)
This sounds like a great recipe to make for a meal ministry too! Thanks for sharing on Good Tastes Tuesday!
Blessings,
Heather
I love freezer meals for the meals ministry! Great idea!
I have just discovered your freezer meals area! I’m going to pin this one and be back to check out some others. I really want to cook more this year. I think freezer meals are the way to go for me. I get to dinner time and am too tired to cook so we eat out all the time. I think I can even get my very picky kids to try this one. Thanks!
Ooh, I love love love freezer meals! I’ll definitely be checking out all your recipes!
Great! I’m hoping to make a new one on Thursday (I don’t know when I’ll blog it though ;)).