Baked Ziti Plus
Description
Standard baked ziti with sausage, peppers, and onions added to the sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese is a warm comforting meal the will surely make your family happy.
Ingredients
•
2 tablespoons olive oil
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2 cloves garlic, sliced
•
2 pounds ground beef
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2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
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1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree
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salt and ground black pepper to taste
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3 pounds Italian link sausage
•
2 green bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch strips
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1 large onion, sliced
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2 (16 ounce) packages rigatoni
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2 (16 ounce) packages mozzarella cheese
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1 (24 ounce) carton ricotta cheese
Directions
1
Heat olive oil in a stockpot over medium-low heat; cook and stir garlic in the hot oil until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes.
2
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes; drain and discard grease. Stir ground beef into garlic. Add crushed tomatoes and tomato puree to ground beef mixture; season with salt and pepper. Cover stockpot and simmer mixture, stirring occasionally, until flavors have blended, about 2 hours.
3
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook sausage links in the hot skillet until browned and not longer pink in the center, 10 to 15 minutes; drain and discard grease. Slice sausages into 1/4-inch rounds. Stir sausage, green bell pepper, and onion into the simmering tomato sauce; cook, stirring occasionally until bell pepper and onion are softened, about 1 hour.
4
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
5
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook rigatoni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, 10 to 11 minutes. Drain and return rigatoni to pot.
6
Dice about 3/4 the mozzarella into 1/8-inch cubes. Mix cubed mozzarella with ricotta cheese in a bowl. Stir cheese mixture into cooked rigatoni until mozzarella cheese begins to melt. Pour rigatoni-cheese mixture into 2 large casserole dishes; add tomato-meat sauce. Toss well.
7
Slice the remaining mozzarella cheese and arrange on top of rigatoni mixtures.
8
Bake in the preheated oven until mozzarella cheese is melted and browned, about 45 minutes.