Baked Ziti for a Crowd

This is a delicious recipe merging sweet, savory and a little bit of spice.  I have adapted it from the Church Mouse blog.



Baked Ziti for a Crowd

Ingredients:
2lbs pasta (ziti or rotini)
6 c. Marinara sauce (I used and loved Rao’s)
1 lb ground Italian sausage (add another 1lb if serving a lot)-this made the dish!!
6 c. shredded Mozzarella, divided
2lb ricotta cheese
1TB dried basil
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4c grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*.  Cook time:40 minutes

1.  Cook pasta according to package.  In another pan, brown the sausage.
2. Drain pasta and layer 1/2 of it on a sprayed baking dish.  I used a roasting pan for extra size and it was perfect.
3.  After the meat has browned, add the pasta sauce in the pot to warm up.
4.  Layer over the noodles.
5.  In a bowl, mix the ricotta cheese (2lbs), mozzarella cheese (2 c), basil (1 TB), salt (1tsp), pepper (1/2 tsp) and Parmesan cheese (1/4 c).
6.  Drop by spoonfuls on top of meat and sauce mixture.
7.  Layer remaining pasta on top.  Cover with the remaining cheese.
8.  Put a layer of foil over.
9.  Bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake additional 5-10 minutes.