<p>I’m feeding 17 teen boys and coaches and thought a baked ziti was the way to go. One boy is a vegetarian so I need some kind of accommodation for him.</p>
<p>I make one to feed teen boys that is super easy dump and bake. I use a box of pasta (ziti, penne or any spiral), a jar of prepared sauce, add a jar of water and a can of tomato sauce, extra seasoning in a 9x12 pan. Seal it up with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for about 45 minute to an hour. Take foil off and sprinkle cheese on top. Failproof, easy and for seventeen teen boys I’d make at least 3 trays of it (mine are all big athletic guys with big athletic friends.) You could make one from tomato/basil sauce for the veggie crowd, for the other two you could add meat/Italian sausage that’s been browned first.</p>
<p>Oops 17 plus coaches - might want to make 4 :-)</p>
<p>Perfect! The 17 includes the coaches. I’ll go buy the stuff right now to do a test run.</p>
<p>The guys are getting dinner after the game as well, so they won’t be eating much before the game. People often do sandwiches, but I wanted to do something warm.</p>
<p>Does it reheat well? I’m thinking I want to cook one BIG one (rather than three smaller ones) in the morning, then reheat before I take it over after school.</p>
<p>Oh, is the can of tomato sauce an 8-ounce or 15-ounce one?</p>
<p>Ziti reheats well…and it freezes well.</p>
<p>From my mom’s recipe. 
You could make one without the meat in the sauce.</p>
<p>Makes 10 servings.
1 pound ziti pasta, cooked
1 whole onion, chopped
1 pound ground beef
52 ounces spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
Ingredients:
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
- In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the
ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce
mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese. - Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.</p>
<p>The easiest ziti recipe - 1 lb. cooked ziti, 1 jar pasta sauce, 1 15 oz. container ricotta cheese, 8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese and 4 tbsp. grated romano cheese Mix macaroni and all other ingredients in a half tray that you use for sternos (make sure it’s the deep kind). Bake at 350 for 1 hour covered.</p>
<p>I was kind of puzzled by the first recipe that had the cheese on top, I wasn’t sure what kind of cheese it was.</p>
<p>Ziti is the easiest dish to make. It should only have a few ingredients to make it yummy!</p>
<p>Just to be clear – the pasta goes in uncooked?</p>
<p>In our house, baked ziti always has ricotta cheese mixed in it. </p>
<p>–Boil the ziti macaroni. Make sure to not to overboil because you don’t want mushy pasta. Slightly undercook the boiled ziti.</p>
<p>–In a bowl, mix ricotta cheese, egg, a little salt, and a little bit of fresh parsley. Proportion should be
one egg/one pound of ricotta.</p>
<p>–In a big pot, dump the slightly cooked ziti. Add some sauce and mix until the cooked ziti is evenly coated.</p>
<p>–In a tray, pour some sauce in the bottom. Add some of the cooked ziti that has been coated with sauce. Plop onto this this layer, some of the ricotta/egg mixture. Swirl it around a little. Sprinkle a little shredded mozzarella and top with a little extra sauce.</p>
<p>–Continue making layers like this----pasta, ricotta/egg mixture, swirl it around a little, shredded mozzarella, and sauce until you’re left with a top layer of pasta.</p>
<p>–Add some more sauce to the top layer and generously sprinkle more shredded mozzarella on the top.</p>
<p>–Cover with foil until it’s heated through and the ricotta/egg mixture is cooked. Then take the foil off and bake a little more until the mozzarella on the top gets firm (a little bit crusty).</p>
<p>–Remove from the oven, let it sit for a few minutes, serve.</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to use those throw away aluminum pans—less cleanup.</p>
<p>We do a ziti recipe sort of layered like lasgane, we do mix the ziti with the sauce (jar based plus extra meat & veggies) then layer it with some mozzerella & parm in several layers</p>
<p>nysmile, I’m not going to work that hard for teen-agers who will wolf it down and not appreciate my hard work. ;)</p>
<p>OK, sounds like I go ahead and cook the pasta al dente before sticking it in the oven. I asked because I used to make a lasagna where the noodles cook in the oven. I didn’t want the ziti to be too mushy.</p>
<p>Yummy, yummy stuff, but I, too, don’t want to work that hard for boys that are starving. You could put any cheese on top of my dump recipe. Actually you probably could put it in while it was cooking, but it “looks” better on top I think. I get lazy and use whatever I have except for the dry jarred Parmesan…not fond of that, and not sure if that is even cheese or not and I’m not sure it actually melts. In my case pasta goes in uncooked - dry and hard right from the box - and absorbs the liquids while cooking…</p>
<p>OK, off to cook. Thanks, everyone.</p>
<p>When you put the pasta in dry you have to add the extra water. I have done both but for a bunch of hungry boys probably would use the dry and add the water. It’s easier and they will eat most anything with enough cheese :).</p>
<p>And I’m done. Woohoo!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, when you said cheese I assumed you meant the Parmesan stuff, and I don’t have mozzarella. Do have shredded cheddar and Monterey Jack, so I’ll just let the family sprinkle it on later if they want (I don’t like cheese).</p>