Am I the only middle aged mother who didn’t know “ziti” is just red/meat sauce and ricotta?
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Anonymous
Correct |
Anonymous
| It’s basically an Italian American mac and cheese — but far easier to make. And there’s no way to screw it up. Amazing. |
Anonymous
Ha, I'm from PA and remember my college roommate serving baked ziti when she was newly married and had the rest of us still-single former roommates over. It seemed a very grown-up thing to serve at the time, even though we're all some fraction Italian and grew up with it. |
Anonymous
| Oh I love baked ziti. I wish DH and DS did! |
Anonymous
OP means Baked ziti, which is essentially lasagne; different pasta, nearly identical ingredients and flavor profile. Baked Ziti is on the DCUM Mount Rushmore along with lasagna, meatballs, and pigs in a blanket. Pigs In A Blanket is the George Washington of DCUM food. |
Anonymous
+1. |
Anonymous
Actually it’s really easy to screw up. If the proportions are wrong or it’s overbaked the ricotta gets all dry and curdy. So gross. Stuffed shells are even worse for this — almost no one can get them appropriately creamy. Maybe because people use reduced fat ricotta? We ate ziti all the time growing up but never the thing Americans refer to as baked ziti. We often did it with home mad red sauce and a mix of hot and sweet sausage. I feel like at some point they started selling penne instead of ziti, but in the 70s, ziti was more common than penne. I think the only real difference is that penne ends are angled like a quill. The penne might also be skinnier. |
Anonymous
| You’re not alone, OP. I’ve had baked ziti on occasion, probably college dorm food, but I’ve never made it and couldn’t have told you what was in it other than pasta and red sauce. Didn’t know about the cheese. I rarely ate Italian food growing up and don’t cook it now other than pasta with basil pesto. My family is Jewish and didn’t live in an Italian-heavy area so no exposure. We ate a humongous amount of Chinese food though! |
Anonymous
There's really no need to bake it. I don't see any point in baking it. If you really want to brown some mozzarella on top, just broil it for a couple minutes. But really, shredded mozzarella can melt if the pasta is hot enough anyways, so even broiling is honestly unnecessary. I don't even think the mozzarella is needed on top. |
Anonymous
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I didn’t know there’s ricotta in baked ziti. Baked ziti sounds like lasagne, but using a different pasta and less meat.
I’m not Italian. I grew up in Ohio. We had Johnny Marzetti instead of baked ziti. |
Anonymous
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When I make baked ziti there is:
ziti shaped pasta tomato sauce ricotta mozarella No meat. |
Anonymous
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If anyone now has a hankering for ziti, this is a great recipe:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020811-cheesy-baked-pasta-with-sausage-and-ricotta?unlocked_article_code=1.aU8.60gG.zmKXP94k1-Zh&smid=share-url |
Anonymous
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I think it’s hilarious that everyone is so surprised how easy it is to actually cook after they watch a Youtubr or TikTok video of someone telling them how to make it. If you can read you can probably make a most of the dishes you eat in restaurants. The recipes are all online - with multiple methods, substitutions, additions, and comments of 500 people who tried it and can tell you what works and dues not.
And even before the internet the Ziti recipe has been on the box of pasta!! |
Anonymous
| And, it makes a ton! |
Anonymous
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We called it "mostaccioli" growing up. All the midwest Italian families served it at the Catholic church suppers, weddings, and funerals.
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