Baked Ziti

Name: Baked Ziti
Yield: Serves 8 to 10
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 pound, whole milk cottage cheese or 1 percent cottage cheese; 2 large, eggs, lightly beaten; 3 ounces, grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 cups); , Table salt; 1 pound, ziti or other short, tubular pasta; 2 tablespoons, extra virgin olive oil; 5 medium, garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 5 teaspoons); 1 (28-ounce) can, tomato sauce; 1 , (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes; 1 teaspoon, dried oregano; 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons, chopped fresh basil leaves; 1 teaspoon, sugar; , Ground black pepper; 3/4 teaspoon, cornstarch; 1 cup, heavy cream (see note); 8 ounces, low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups) (see note)

169 comments

Appears in Cook's Illustrated March/April 2009, America's Test Kitchen TV

Transforming this tired Italian-American classic into a dish worth making took more than swapping out the ricotta.

SERVES8 to 10

TIME2 hours, plus 20 minutes cooling

has video

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

To get a baked ziti recipe with perfectly al dente pasta, a rich and flavorful sauce, and melted cheese in every bite, we parted from convention in several ways. First, we substituted cottage cheese for ricotta because the larger cheese cur...

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