Baked Ziti

I was trying to figure out what recipe to share with ya'll today when I got an email from our neighbor with a recipe she had promised to send me.

BAKED ZITI WITH SPINACH
Ingredients
* Salt
* 1 pound ziti
* 1 pound hot Italian turkey sausage, casing removed
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 6 ounces pesto
* 15 ounces ricotta cheese
* 1 (9-ounce) package washed spinach
* Butter, for baking dish
* 2 cups shredded mozzarella, plus more for topping
* 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan, plus more for topping
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add ziti and cook until al dente. Drain in a colander.
In a large skillet over medium heat, saute turkey sausage. Add onion and garlic and saute until the sausage is cooked through. Use your spoon to break up the sausage while it cooks. Add the can of diced tomatoes and pesto and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the ricotta cheese, spinach, Parmesan and mozzarella to a large bowl, and stir to combine.
Butter a 4-quart baking dish, add the cooked pasta, then sausage mixture and cheese mixture. Top with a sprinkling of mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake until completely heated through and golden and crisp on top, about 20 minutes.

Sounds delicious to me. And...I have spinach planted in the garden so soon I'll be able to add FRESH spinach. Yum!
I also went and found a really simple recipe for those of you who have to work and need to put a dinner together quickly. Just add a veggie and/or a salad and some hot garlic bread or rolls and your ready to go.

EASY BAKED ZITI
Ingredients:
1 box ziti noodles
1 jar spaghetti sauce
ricotta cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
In a large oven safe dish, pour in the whole jar of spaghetti sauce. Add ricotta cheese, mixing as you go, until the mixture turns an orange kinda color. Meanwhile, cook the whole box of ziti noodles according to the instructions on the box. When they are cooked and drained, dump them into the dish with the spaghetti sauce/ricotta mix. Stir so all the noodles are covered with the sauce. Cover the whole mixture with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Bake in preheated oven at 350* F until mozzarella cheese is melted.

I often forget to buy garlic bread so I put some cheap dinner biscuits on the pan and lightly spray the tops with butter flavored cooking spray and shake a bit of garlic salt on them. It's a quick and easy way to flavor up the package of 33 cent dinner biscuits I get at Aldi's.

It looks like it is going to be a very nice day here ((keeping my fingers crossed)). I've got some laundry to do, a garden to check on (we had a freeze warning last night, ugh) and I might try to find the time to make some salt clay for Rylie today. The same neighbor who gave me the Ziti recipe sent me a page of homemade paint and clay recipes. I'll have to put some of them on here at some point.

Have a great day everyone!
Hugs,
Jill Marie