Baked Ziti With Hot Italian Sausage & Fresh Mozzarella

"This is a modified version of a recipe given to me by Momma Maglione. Her recipe does not include the sausage and uses her secret family gravy recipe which I cannot post. ;)"
 
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photo by Baby Kato photo by Baby Kato
photo by Baby Kato
photo by Baby Kato photo by Baby Kato
photo by PanNan photo by PanNan
photo by Emily Elizabeth photo by Emily Elizabeth
photo by Emily Elizabeth photo by Emily Elizabeth
Ready In:
1hr 15mins
Ingredients:
8
Serves:
8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cook ziti until it is al dente (so that when you bake it in the oven it will cook the rest of the way). Rinse in cold water, drain and pour into a 7"x11" glass baking dish.
  • Meanwhile, begin cooking sausage.
  • Puree San Marzano tomatoes, crushed red pepper flakes and salt in a blender until smooth.
  • When sausage is done, remove from pan and add 1/2 cup wine to reserved drippings from sausage and bring to a simmer scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan and stirring with wine. While wine is simmering, slice sausage at a slight diagonal about 1/2" thick.
  • Add pureed sauce and sliced sausage to wine and stir. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile thinly slice and chop the fresh mozarella balls (some people recommend freezing for a 5 minutes or so to help with slicing, but I never do).
  • When sauce is done simmering, pour everything over pasta. Sprinkle 1 cup of the fresh mozzarella throughout (fresh makes all the difference!) and sprinkle the rest on top. Top with a few shakes of crushed red pepper.
  • Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until you see it getting a little bubbly. You can even cook it longer it you want it to get a little crisp on top, not too crisp as it will get dry.
  • Serve with a bottle of wine and some nice Italian music.

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Reviews

  1. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. The dish is really quick and easy to make and tastes great. We really enjoyed all the lovely flavors in this pasta dish. I used hot Italian sausage and a mixed variety of pasta . They worked really well in this dish. This was a great comfort meal. Made for Best of 2015.
     
  2. I made this with homemade rabbit sausage, Solare ancient grains gluten free penne, and shredded mozzarella, plus it ended up just being cooked in the skillet as I ran out of time. Very tasty. Note: taste before you add red pepper flakes as the heat of the sausage may be all you need.
     
  3. Loved it!
     
  4. WOW!!! I just had this for dinner with a salad. I made at 3pm put in fridge then cooked at 545pm. Really fresh tasting. If I would add anything it would be add garlic. Thank you, Only 2 of us so we have lunch for work.
     
  5. Very tasty! I made a few changes to suit the ingredients I had. Used mild Italian sausage, 6 of them, which I saut?ed, then sliced, then saut?ed some more. Added crushed red pepper, seasoning, and a little fennel to compensate for the mild sausage. Used a 28 oz can of Whole Foods organic crushed tomatoes, then made up the difference in tomatoes with about a cup of homemade pasta sauce. Used 2 7-oz containers of fresh mozzarella medallions (no cutting!), and could have used 3. Used a 13x9 baking dish. Served with homemade French bread and steamed broccoli for a delicious meal with lots of leftovers. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
     
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Tweaks

  1. This was really good. I followed the recipe, except for using a 28 oz can of italian style diced tomatoes instead of the san marzano tomatoes. The san marzano tomatoes were twice the price, so I got the cheaper option. I loved the taste of the wine sauce. I think there was barely enough sauce because I like extra sauce, so next time I may use the 28 oz can, plus a 14 oz can of tomatoes and increase the wine to 3/4 cup. This was my first time using fresh mozzarella instead of shredded and I thought it was excellent in this recipe. I baked it in a 9 x 11 pan and it was done in 30 mins. Also, I used a immersion blender instead of a regular blender and it worked fine. Thanks for a delicious recipe. I will definitely make this again sometime.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Growing up, my mom didn't keep any junk food in the house so if I wanted something sweet I had to find a way to make it (or go to a friend's house)! I loved looking through my mom's recipe books and trying to find recipes that I could make. I baked a lot of home made bread from Betty Crocker's Big Red Book, and every holiday, my mom and I would make pies together from scratch. I didn't actually get interested in cooking main courses until I got married and realized that I had to actually put dinner on the table every night. Just as I was starting to get the hang of it, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in May of 2007. This meant that I had to learn a whole new way of cooking - gluten free. I have accepted this as a new challenge and have fallen even more in love with cooking and baking. There is nothing like the feeling I get when I have success with creating a new recipe! My inspiration usually comes from a craving for something that I can't have because it is not gluten free. I immediately go back to my kitchen and learn how to make it myself! I also focus on creating recipes with all natural ingredients and avoiding artificial or added sugars.
 
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