Baked Ziti

Dear Devon,

A few nights ago, my good friend and neighborhood buddy came over for a first look at the new place. I had the day off and decided to prepare what I thought would be an easy meal of baked ziti. But minutes before she arrived, I found myself standing over a steamy sink frantically scrubbing at tomato-sauce-encrusted pots. Tessa isn't the type of person to stand on ceremony. She came over in her after work clothes (something I fully support), but with a six-foot ladder standing in my living room and the tricky oven, a devastated kitchen was hardly how I wanted to greet her. Needless to say, our night was filled with gossip, hearty laughter, and of course, yummy food. Tessa was a particularly good sport, taking a large container of baked ziti home with her.

Cook's Illustrated is my favorite food publication. Its appearance in my mailbox draws my wide smile and excited giggle. Though I read the magazine cover to cover, I seldom cook any of the recipes. Perhaps after reading their extremely thorough discussion and how-to, I no longer feel the need to make the dish. With this magazine I am a passive observer, a culinary couch potato. But given how methodical the writers are, I assumed the recipes would be essentially foolproof. It was with this thought that I attempted their "baked ziti" recipe from issue 97 (March & April 2009).

The recipe seemed harmless enough. It asks for some unorthodox methods like substituting cottage cheese for ricotta, half cooking the ziti pasta, and making both a cream sauce and a tomato based sauce. Written out, there were only five steps. I had made baked zitis many times before, always with good results and minimal effort. How hard could this recipe be? Technically, the recipe was simple, but in terms of work, it was overload. The recipe should have come with a warning label: Do not attempt without 1) electric or manual dishwasher (meaning not you) 2) a mile of counter space 3) a dozen wooden stirring spoons and half as many pots, mixing bowls, or any large bowl shaped containers.

Attempting to make this in a New York sized kitchen is an absolute joke. My favorite instruction read: Off heat, stir in...Translation: move to the only empty burner not used in the last 10 minutes because every inch of counter space and table tops are occupied. While the results were pretty fantastic, I don't think my baked ziti in the past was that bad.

Though I found serious faults with the recipe, I do plan to use some of their suggestions. For instance, I like the substitution of cottage cheese for ricotta cheese. I liked seeing the large curds between the layers of pasta. In addition, using cottage cheese avoided that gluey texture of loose ricotta in baked pasta dishes, lasagna included. The use of two sauces was also a nice touch. The cream helped to subdue the sourness of the tomato. However, making separate sauces is a bit too much work. In the future, I'll add a bit of cream to the tomato sauce instead. I also liked their suggestion for half cooking the pasta. The idea is to allow the pasta to fully cook once incorporated with the sauce in the oven. The Cook's Illustrated recipe asks for diced mozzarella to be mixed in with the pasta. I forgot to add this extra cheese, but it didn't affect the taste and I'm not sure I will use it next time either.

Right off the bat, I made some significant changes to the recipe, and a few substitutions: I added spinach and mushrooms, and swapped flour for cornstarch, and 1% milk for cream. I forgot to buy both diced canned tomatoes and mozzarella, so I omitted them. I also reduced the amount of grated parmesan cheese.

I won't deny that the dish turned out well. True to the article's promise, it was highly flavorful and moist. The pasta was not overcooked, and it plumped up beautifully. But was it really worth all that effort? I'm not so sure. My plan is to try it again, keeping some of their ideas, but editing down the labor that went into this one.

Baked Ziti
from Cook's Illustrated March-April 2009
(paraphrasing the recipe with my added comments)

1 pound whole milk cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (the recipe asks for 1 1/2 cups)
1 pound ziti
5 medium garlic cloves, smashed
1-28 oz can tomato sauce
1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (omit, if as in my case, you forget to buy this)
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp flour (recipe asks for cornstarch)
1 cup milk (recipe asks for cream)
8 oz shredded mozzarella
1 box frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed of excess water
8 oz mushroom, sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9 x 13 casserole dish.

Whisk cottage cheese, eggs, and parmesan cheese in a medium bowl. Mix in defrosted spinach and mushrooms. Set aside. In a Dutch oven, bring water to boil. Add in pasta and salt. When the pasta begins to soften, drain and set aside.

In another pot, heat oil and garlic over medium heat until fragrant. Stir in tomato sauce and sugar and simmer. (Note: cover the pot, or suffer the volcanic eruptions of thickening sauce.) Cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.

Stir cornstarch/flour into milk/heavy cream until dissolved. Transfer mixture to now empty Dutch oven and set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Off the heat, add ricotta mixture and 1 cup tomato sauce. Stir to combine. Add half cooked pasta. Stir to combine.

Pour pasta mixture into prepared pan. Spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over the pasta. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and nicely browned.