Baked Ziti with Sweet Turkey Sausage

My Mom gave me a ceramic roasting pan last Christmas. It works great with baked pasta- it gives the edges that nice crispy, chewy texture that you can't get with a metal pan. Tonight we made a Baked Ziti with Sausage. It sounds pretty heavy, but we lightened it up by using a homemade marinara sauce, turkey sausage, light mozzarella and light ricotta. You can use a store bought sauce, but watch the label as a lot of them have a ton of sugar and/or sodium. The Marinara recipe below only takes an hour or so, and you can freeze a bunch of it in containers to use later.

Baked Ziti with Sweet Turkey Sausage

Ingredients

• 1 pound ziti noodles

• 1 pound sweet turkey sausage, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices

• 1 (15-ounce) container regular or part-skim ricotta cheese

• 4 cups grated part-skim mozzarella cheese, reserve 1 cup, for topping

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Reserve some of the cooking liquid. Meanwhile, cook sausage in a hot skillet over medium heat until golden brown on all sides. Remove sausage and add to a medium saucepan with the marinara sauce(recipe below) and simmer. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and garlic powder and mix well. Spoon 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce/sausage mixture in the bottom of a 4-quart casserole dish. Top with half of the cooked ziti. Top with half of the cheese mixture. Top with 1 cup of the tomato sauce. Repeat layers (remaining ziti and remaining cheese mixture). Top with remaining tomato sauce. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese over top. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 30 more minutes, or until cheese is golden and bubbly.

Marinara Sauce

(Recipe courtesy Guy Fieri)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 yellow onion, minced

• 4 medium garlic cloves, smashed

• 6 cups canned San Marzano tomatoes

• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh basil leaves

• 1/2 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh oregano leaves

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In medium saucepan, heat olive oil, add onions and cook over medium to low heat until onions are transparent. Add garlic and cook until almost brown and then add tomatoes. Cook for 1/2 hour over low to medium heat, then add basil and oregano and continue to cook for 30 minutes longer. In a food mill or a blender, puree into a sauce. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.