Awesome cheesy baked ziti. With a robustly flavored homemade tomato sauce (made with Italian sausage), ricotta and melty, bubbly mozzarella cheese, this is comfort food at its finest!↓. Baked Ziti is a classic Italian American comfort food of pasta baked with sausage, tomato sauce and all kinds of gooey, yummy cheeses. This recipe is a pretty basic version, but everyone who makes baked ziti has their own unique tricks and twists to it.

Baked ziti is one of those super easy recipes the whole family will love. Ziti is cooked, then tossed with spaghetti sauce, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. Baked ziti is one of those incredibly adaptable recipes you can change to suit your mood, your family's tastes or the ingredients you have on hand. You can have Awesome cheesy baked ziti using 12 ingredients and 15 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of Awesome cheesy baked ziti

You need 1 box of ziti or penne noodles.
It's 1 lb of sour cream.
Prepare 1 lb of ground beef.
You need 2 can of jar spaghetti sauce.
You need 6 oz of shredded mozzarella.
Prepare 3 tbsp of shredded parmesan cheese.
It's 1 of medium onion, chopped.
You need 1/2 tsp of Italian seasoning.
Prepare of fresh ground pepper.
It's 2 tbsp of balsamic or red wine vinegar.
It's 1 tsp of garlic powder.
Prepare 16 of each sliced provolone cheese.

Extra easy baked ziti made entirely from scratch! Our favorite baked ziti recipe is creamy and cheesy with a mixture of pasta, a five minute homemade I love how quick this baked ziti is to make. Basically, all you need to do is mix all the ingredients together. Left to right: Top layer (more parm and mozzarella).

Awesome cheesy baked ziti instructions

Line a 9 x 13 (or larger) casserole pan with Reynolds casserole liner foil/paper. If you don't have this make sure to coat pan with cooking spray..
Boil pasta until al dente, drain and set aside..
In a large skillet brown the ground beef..
Add chopped onions to the ground beef and saute until the onions are translucent..
Drain beef mixture in a colander, set aside..
Add 2 jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce, beef mixture and 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the skillet. Set aside..
In medium mixing bowl stir together the sour cream, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, Italian seasoning, ground pepper and 1tsp garlic powder..
Drizzle a small amount add the spaghetti sauce mixture in the bottom of the lined pan to keep pasta from sticking..
Place half the pasta in the pan..
Layer half of the sauce mixture on top of the pasta..
Lay eight slices of provolone cheese to cover the sauce mixture..
Soon half the sour cream/cheese mixture over the provolone and spread out..
Layer the last of the noodles, then sauce mixture, then 8 slices of provolone and last of the sour cream/cheese mixture..
Bake in a 350° pre-heated oven for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and cheese is melted..
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This is seriously the Best Baked Ziti Ever. Your family is going to love the homemade meat sauce, and ricotta and cream cheese topping! We love the added flavor and texture from the mushrooms, but you can absolutely omit them if you don't love them. Baked Ziti is the ultimate in Italian Casserole dishes and I'd feel like I was holding back if I didn't tell you that if you love this ziti I need you to try our Baked Million Dollar Spaghetti and Ultimate Meat Lasagna. They're basically all best friends in the cheesy meat pasta category.