My daughter, who’s been living in Scotland for the last four years, recently returned home to do a post-baccalaureate program at a nearby college. Like my other two children, she’s a vegetarian and an athlete. On Sunday, she’ll be running the Portland Marathon, so we are eating a lot of carbs this week at our house. We both love to cook, but our schedules are particularly hectic right now and we sat on Monday evening to plan out a week of simple meals that will provide her with the fuel she’ll need to run her race. One of the easiest, and a staple at my mother’s table when I was growing up, is baked ziti. It can be thrown together in about twenty minutes, and while it bakes in the oven, you can make a salad (or sip a glass of wine).
When I went looking for this recipe, I remembered that I had put together a collection of "classics" for my daughter when she first left home and was cooking on her own. Many of the recipes, like this one, were passed on to me by my own mother.
Baked Ziti
1 pound ziti
½ pound ricotta
1 egg
1 quart tomato sauce (my mother, of course, made her own; but after an hour on the Mass Pike driving home from work, I reach for the glass jar in the pantry)
4 ounces shredded mozzarella
1. Boil the ziti until al dente. Drain.
2. Blend ricotta with egg.
3. Toss the ziti with tomato sauce in a baking dish.
4. Blend in ricotta-egg mixture.
5. Add more tomato sauce if it looks dry.
6. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
7. Sprinkle top with mozzarella and bake for 5 more minutes until mozzarella is melted.
6 comments:
I think I would be really, really nice if the Everlasting Love blog website would have a special link and page(s) to all the recipes of past blogs. I usually try to visit here on a work break. I love reading these recipes but i sure would also love to be able to Come back to them too! I still miss very much the kind of food my family cooked and ate when I was a child. My husband and i like to make salmon-zucchini lasagna with a light basil cream sauce. It takes a lot of time but is good for several meals and freezing.
Ah-h Linda!
Now this is the kind of food I love, too. Thank you for that basic recipe. So, can we get a copy of the "Classics" you wrote for your daughter? FYI - I also prepared a similar type notebook for my terrific daughter-in-law who doesn't know how to cook at all- and I'm not kidding. She wanted to learn everything I knew. (My son was very encouraging!) But how do you teach everything in five minutes? She's in Connecticut and I'm in Texas. We're doing it little by little. When I was visiting last time, I made a brisket which is easy. But I've learned that when you know nothing about cooking, everything looks hard. Thanks again, I'm going to make baked ziti.
Linda
Food fuels more than our bodies, for sure. In my home, and within my family, food was the excuse to sit around and "chew the fat" which meant we caught up on the lives of all our cousins, sisters and other family members. In recent years I've heard wonderful stories about my grandmother, Jessie Florence, who died before I was born, but who was known for wonderful comfort food meals spread on a huge table mounted on saw horses. She had eleven children who all had at least three children and heaven knows how many grandchildren. Wish I could have known her....
Merri,
Thanks for writing again! I just tried clicking on the "Older Posts" at the bottom of the blog and it took me back to all the past blogs, so you can still get to the recipes we posted weeks ago. Your salmon-zucchini lasagna sounds luscious! I have a recipe for a seafood lasagna from my sister-in-law's church cookbook that also takes a great deal of time, but that is worth every mouth-watering bite.
Hi Linda!
I've just finished eating the ziti with my daughter. It was wonderful to walk in the house this evening and smell it bubbling away in the oven. How great that your daughter-in-law is eager to learn from you. I was thinking about posting some of these recipes on my website, since my characters are always cooking up something!
Linda
I'm sure in another life I was Italian. It's the food I love best, but my backside shows it. LOL
Thanks for the recipe,and I'm looking forward to reading your next book about three generations. I love family saga books. There aren't enough being written any more. Maybe I'll get the ingredients for ziti tonight.
Roz
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