Cheesy Stuffed Baked Ziti

Today's recipe is brought to you from PickyPalate.com.  I just stopped by  her website yesterday and OMG hello yummy recipes! Each recipe has a photo and it's nicely organized something that I love because some recipe sites are hard to navigate.  I know, your surprised I didn't pick something from AllRecipes.com my favorite website but I wanted to switch it up a bit.  Here's what we'll be feasting on for a few leftover meals today and tomorrow (as it made ALOT).

Cheesy Stuffed Baked Ziti

Ingredients

1 lb ziti pasta noodles

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small bell pepper of choice, finely chopped

½ medium onion, finely chopped

1 lb ground beef

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 26oz jar Classico Pasta Sauce (Or any sauce you like)

1 15 oz container Ricotta Cheese

1 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese

½ Cup grated Parmesan cheese

Pinch salt, pepper

2 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

2. Place olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Dice up your onion and bell pepper, 

 P.S. If you don't have some of these flexible cutting boards they are my new favorite thing.  It makes cooking alot easier being able to toss it from the board into the pan with flexible boards. 

Super cheap at Ross/TJ Maxx too!

Saute bell pepper and onion until softened, about 5 minutes. 

 Brown your beef (I actually used chicken sausage because I didn't have any beef on hand)

Add pasta sauce, reduce heat to low and stir in noodles.

 Mix until combined.

 3. Place ricotta, mozzarella *I think it was suppose to be the 1 cup of cheese not 2 cups mixed in the ricotta* (mix it with 1 cup of mozzarella), parmesan, salt and pepper into a large bowl. Stir until well combined.

4. Place ½ pasta into a 9×13 inch baking dish. 

Spoon ricotta mixture evenly over pasta, covering entire dish. 

 That's a layer of cheesy goodness

Pour remaining pasta over cheese, then sprinkle with shredded mozzarella *2 cups of mozzarella*.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. *The temperature wasn't listed so I did 350 F for about 30 mintues and broiled it at the end because the cheese wasn't crispy enough.

Makes 8 servings (Total Understatement) 

I think it makes enough to feed an army of hungry men, but I only have one so he'll have to start packing on some carbo loading pounds :) 

It was boyfriend approved although he said he wish there was more meat in it, so using sausage instead of beef might have been the culprit but otherwise beef might be the better choice since there's more of it. 

Enjoy! 

 Also I finally got to update my Macaroni Salad with photos,

Check that one out here - Macaroni Salad Recipe