Baked Ziti

S and I have been watching the Sopranos on DVD for a while now (and still not done with the show).  One of the meals that the characters on the show mention quite a bit is “Baked Ziti.”   I wasn’t sure what it is, but then this recipe came across my Inbox.  So, I decided to give it a try.

It turns out that this meal is very much like lasagna – same type of meat and sauce baked in a casserole pan.  The recipe calls for different type of pasta (of course) and sour cream instead of ricotta cheese.   We had my brother and his family over for dinner – the Baked Ziti was a hit.   A 9 x 13 pan fed all of us (4 adults, 1 child), and we still had leftovers which went into the freezer for another time.

We’ll keep this meal in our dinner rotation.  Personally, I liked it better than lasagna because I like the pasta in the Baked Zita better.

Here is the Baked Ziti recipe from allrecipes.com.

The ingredients are here you can check it out and then click on the recipe if you want to try this yourself.   The amount will vary based on number of servings.   As some of the reviewers suggested, I mixed a quarter of the sour cream with the pasta before layering the pasta.

Dry Ziti pasta
Lean ground beef (can also use sausage)
Onion
Spaghetti sauce
Sliced Provolone cheese
Sliced Mozzarella cheese
Sour cream
Parmasean cheese 
Fresh basil

I made this over the weekend and was rushing so I didn’t get a chance to capture the finished meal in a photo.  

It’s a great meal.  Now, I know what they are talking about on the Sopranos.