Baked Ziti from Cook's Illustrated

mary winecoff's Note:

This is the best baked ziti I have ever tried...and I have tried a lot. This is from the March 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated and has been thoroughly tested by them.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 lb 1% fat cottage cheese
• 2 large eggs , lightly beaten
• 3 ounces parmesan cheese , grated
• salt
• 1 lb ziti pasta
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 5 medium garlic cloves , minced
• 1 (28 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (14 ½ ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh basil , chopped
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• black pepper
• ¾ teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces mozzarella cheese , cut into 1/4 inch pieces

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°F Whisk cottage cheese, eggs and 1 cup Parmesan together in medium bowl; set aside. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in large Dutch oven over high heat. Stir in 1 Tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain pasta and leave in colander.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil and garlic in 12 inch skillet over medium heat until garlic is fragrant but not brown. Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in 1/2 cup basil and sugar, then season with salt and pepper.
3. Stir cornstarch into heavy cream in small bowl, transfer mixture to Dutch oven set over medium heat. Bring to simmer and cook until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pot from heat and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce and 3/4 cup mozzarella, then stir to combine. Add pasta and stir to coat.
4. Transfer pasta mixture to 13 x 9 inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta. Sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup mozzarella and remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan over top. Cover baking dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Remove foil and continue to cook until cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 3 Tablespoons basil and serve.

Reviews

[Jennacooks]

I read this in the original Cook's Illustrated issue but we lost it, so I'm so glad to see the recipe posted here. A few things I'd add: 1) to the people saying that you should substitute ricotta instead of cottage cheese: ricotta is the traditional cheese used for baked ziti, but if you read Cook's Illustrated they made it both ways and found that cottage cheese retained its moisture while ricotta dried out. They substituted cottage cheese instead of ricotta and got better results, so stay with cottage cheese. 2) to save some steps / time: you can use jarred alfredo sauce instead of mixing cream/cornstarch and get the exact same results. In fact, they did it that way in Cook's Illustrated and got the same results as mixing your own cream sauce. They just put mixing your own cream sauce in the final recipe because they wanted it to be all from scratch. So, save yourself some time and effort and use jarred alfredo sauce! 3) this is also great with vodka sauce instead of straight tomato sauce, and I do like to add more cubes of mozzarella. Great, great recipe that really feeds a crowd -- thanks for posting!

[nataliegoes]

I was actually disappointed because it was so tasty. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but after spending a lot of time and totally demolishing my kitchen, I hoped that I would never have to make this recipe again. I was never able to get the cream sauce to simmer, and who has a double boiler these days? I think I'll look for an easier recipe.

[LorenLou]

OMG.....I had a really good ziti recipe but this one puts it to shame. My friend actually had the Cook's Illustrated and let me read it. It explains why cottage cheese over ricotta, why the mozzarella cheese is cubed, etc., and it all totally makes sense. I have been begging for her to send me the recipe all week and was so happy to find it here. I really don't like to make substitutions when I'm reviewing a recipe. I feel it should be prepared as written for a proper review. That said, we're not into "chunky", so I subbed another can of tomato sauce for the diced tomatoes. That's the only change I made. This is the creamiest, most flavorful ziti ever. Hands down, my family agreed, we throw out the old recipe!