Some friends of ours had another baby recently, so we scheduled a visit and brought them some food to give them a break. They requested baked ziti. Since OYB had bumped some old picture recipe threads I’d done, I figured it might be a good time to do one for baked ziti.

A couple of things first. I’ve done the Roy Choi $27 meatballs a few times and really enjoyed it, so this time I did my riff on his sauce for the ziti. It worked very well and I will likely use it in the future. I added some sweet Italian sausage in mine, but you don’t have to add meet. Conversely, you could also do ground pork, beef, or even go all out and do a Sunday gravy with short rib, chuck or meatballs.

Speaking of Italian sausage, I use Terranova. The place has the best Italian sausage available in LA, period. Unfortunately, they’ll be closing next year after 100 years in business, but from what I understand, they do plan to keep the butcher operation open and continue churning out sausages (let’s hope)!

On to the recipe…

Ingredients:
-2 cups dried mushrooms
-1 cup peeled garlic cloves
-Fresh basil
-3/4 to 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-2 28oz cans whole San Marzano
-1 to 1.5 lbs Italian sausage
-Salt
-Pepper
-1 lb fresh mozzarella, cubed
-1 lb dried mozzarella, cubed
-2 lbs whole milk ricotta
-2 cups freshly grated Parm-Reg
-1.75 lbs ziti or rigatoni

Add 2 cups of dried mushrooms to a pot with 4 cups water. Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to low and reduce by half

Next, add your garlic, some basil and ~3/4c of EVOO to a cold skillet over very low heat

You want a gentle confit, not a deep fry

After around an hour and a half, the garlic will be a rich, golden brown. Remove from heat and reserve.

Your mushroom stock should also be ready by now

Strain and set aside

Add your tomatoes to a pot, place over medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer

Add the reserved garlic and the oil (YES, ALL OF IT)

Add around 1c of mushroom stock. Reserve the rest for later.

Break out the boat motor and blend until smooth

Add fresh basil, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for an hour and a half or so, stirring regularly

Don’t use shitty sausage!

Brown off about a pound of sausage in a little EVOO. I used sweet Italian here. Remove to drain on paper towels and reserve

Pour off excess oil and deglaze the pan you browned your sausage in with some mushroom stock to loosen up all that great fond. That’s free flavor!

Add the deglazed pan remnants and the sausage to your sauce, simmer for 15-20 minutes more, and season to taste.

Cubed mozzarella

Parboil your pasta for 5-6 minutes, strain and reserve. Do not boil any longer or your pasta will be severely overcooked once you bake the dish.

Add the pasta to a large mixing bowl, and ladle some sauce over it. Smelling good in here!!!

Add your ricotta and mix. Add more sauce as necessary. You’ll want this fairly wet, but you don’t want the pasta swimming in sauce.

Add a good punch of Parmigiano-Reggiano and about a third of your cubed mozzarella

Ladle an healthy amount of sauce into your casserole dish. I used around 5 ladles full here.

Add a layer of your pasta mixture over the sauce

Sprinkle a generous amount of Parmigiano over the first layer and add another third of your cubed mozzarella

Spoon on another layer of the pasta mixture. Pile it high, and add a little more sauce on top if you like!

Cover with the rest of your cubed mozzarella. Try to get fairly even coverage.

Top with a healthy amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and we’re ready for transport!

Once we got to our friends’ house, I pre-heated their oven to 450° and drizzled EVOO over the top, especially all along the corners and edges, to ensure they get nice and crispy. Put the casserole, uncovered, atop a sheet pan (this WILL boil over) and pop it in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Here’s a pic after 20 minutes. It’s not browned enough, and not ready.

Here’s what it looked like at 35 minutes. Look at all that bubbly, crusty cheese! This is ready!

Remove from the oven and let rest 15 minutes or so (if you can!). Beware of vultures trying to poach crispy bits while you wait. Serve and eat. Buon appetito!