Christmas Notebook

True confessions…I’ve never made this before. My son is a bit of a picky eater and, on Thanksgiving, after he had only rolls and ham for dinner and no dessert, I asked his wife what he *did* like these days…it’s been a long time since he lived here. She said he likes baked ziti with no meat. So I found a recipe online and am giving it a trial run. If it’s good (and it smells delicious, BTW!), I’ll put it on the menu for Christmas weekend when all our children and their families will be home at the same time.

I’ll tell you what…I begin to wonder if I’m capable of just making a recipe the way it says to make it. I changed a lot in this one. The recipe I found is this one: Baked Ziti. What I ended up with was this one…

Baked Ziti

1/2 pound dried ziti
15 ounces ricotta cheese
3 eggs [Friends gave us three dozen beautiful, brown, home-grown eggs, so I decided to add some to this, since we have a wealth.]
3 cups (or 12 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)
29 oz. can crushed tomatoes
freshly grated Parmesan cheese [I didn’t measure this…just grated on enough to cover the sauce. Ditto with the Romano.]
freshly grated Romano cheese

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add the ziti. Cook until tender, about 8 minutes, drain the pasta.

Mix the ricotta, the eggs and half of the mozzarella. Stir till well blended. Add the drained ziti and stir again.

Grease a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish. Spread half of the crushed tomatoes on the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the tomatoes with any spices you care to add. I used dried minced onion, garlic powder, dried crushed oregano, dried crushed basil, and dried parsley flakes.

Add the ziti mixture and cover with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with more spices and then with Parmesan and Romano and the remaining mozzarella. I topped it off with a little sprinkle of parsley flakes.

Bake uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, until lightly browned and heated through.

The ziti is delicious.

And the bread was good, too. I used the usual recipe, but took about one third of the dough after it had one rise, and I added freshly chopped rosemary, dried oregano and dried parsley. Also some shredded mozzarella.

I shaped it into a flat bread and let it rise again, then pushed some divets into it with my fingers and drizzled a little olive oil over it.

I baked it at 350*F for 15 minutes. It could have gone a couple more minutes, I think, though it was cooked through.

I had planned to halve some slices, brush them with olive oil, a little garlic powder, and top them with mozzarella cheese before broiling for a few minutes. But I wasn’t sure when DH would be home and it was getting late, so I skipped that and we had the herb bread for supper without the extras. Still delicious. Though, if I had planned ahead for herb bread before I mixed the dough, I would have made the bread with less sugar than the recipe calls for.

But supper was delicious. 🙂 ~~Rhonda