Our High-Protein Baked Ziti: The Ultimate Weeknight Dinner Solution

Those times are over when cottage cheese was simply a dull diet dish, fitting neatly inside the hollowed-out cavity of a melon. Now, it’s incorporated into almost anything—from being stirred into eggs to being mixed into various recipes. dips , incorporated into desserts, and, in this recipe, replaced with ricotta Why? It offers a zestier taste and contains more. protein , enhancing traditional dishes perfectly.

As much as I enjoy providing comfort baked ziti I thought about shaking things up by substituting cottage cheese for ricotta and streamlining the procedure to make a one-pan I'm totally for sidestepping a major clean up, which is why I love one-pot meals. pasta For dinners, I usually opt for recipes cooked in a Dutch oven. Generally, I stand by to stir often and prevent the pasta from clumping together.

For this recipe, I wanted the ziti to possess that casserole Create a relaxed atmosphere and take a less involved approach. Begin by preparing the sauce in an oven-safe skillet with a depth of 2 inches. Next, add the pasta and let it cook briefly on the stovetop before placing it in the oven. Incorporate seasoned cottage cheese and mozzarella, followed by additional layers of cottage cheese, a generous layer of mozzarella, and a dusting of Parmesan. Once baked, the pasta softens within the sauce, while the exposed ziti becomes wonderfully crisp.

Here are some suggestions: You may wonder about the quantity of salt in the sauce, yet refrain from reducing it—it truly enhances the pasta flavor! I prefer using Diamond Crystal kosher salt because it is less compact compared to Morton or regular salt. Should you opt for Morton kosher salt instead, reduce the measurement to three-quarters of a teaspoon; for fine sea salt or table salt, only utilize half the specified amount.
If your pan isn't sufficiently deep, follow through with assembling the ziti right up till you take it off the stove. Then, move it into a lightly oiled 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish before continuing with the rest of the instructions as outlined.

You can store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to five days and they heat up wonderfully either in the oven or the microwave.

Have you attempted to make this? Share your experience in the comments!

Yields: 6-8 servings

Prep Time: 15 mins

Total Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp.

  extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 lb.

  sweet or spicy Italian sausage with casings taken off

• 1/2 tsp.

  red pepper flakes (optional)

• 5 c.

  store-bought or homemade marinara sauce

• Kosher salt

• 1

  (16-oz.) container of whole-milk cottage cheese

• 1/2 tsp.

  garlic powder

• 1 oz.

  Grated Parmesan (approximately 1/2 cup), divided

• 1/4 c.

  freshly diced parsley, split

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 lb.

  Ziti, rigatoni, or another type of tubular pasta

• 2 c.

  water

• 12 oz.

  low-moisture mozzarella cheese, shredded (approximately 3 cups), split

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 450° and position the rack in the top third. In a large (minimum 12-inch), high-sided, oven-safe skillet placed over medium-high heat, add the oil. Add the sausage and break it apart into larger chunks as you cook it until nicely browned, which should take between 3 to 5 minutes. If using red pepper flakes, stir them in along with the sausage and let everything warm together for roughly another minute.
2. Stir in the marinara sauce, then add 1 teaspoon of salt for seasoning. Let it reach a gentle simmer and continue cooking, giving it an occasional stir, until it becomes somewhat thicker, which should take around 10 minutes.
3. At the same time, mix together the cottage cheese, garlic powder, half of the Parmesan, and half of the parsley in a medium-sized bowl. Crush the curds slightly as you blend them. Add seasoning with salt and black pepper according to your taste.
4. Include ziti and water in a skillet and let it come to a gentle boil. Stir occasionally to prevent the pasta from adhering to the pan’s base, cooking for roughly 2 minutes until everything blends together nicely. Take the skillet off the stove, then gently incorporate half of the cottage cheese mix along with half of the mozzarella, ensuring you still have spots of cheese visible throughout.
5. Add the leftover cottage cheese mixture to the dollop pasta. Top it off with the rest of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.
6. Move to the oven and cook until the pasta is soft and bubbly, with patches of golden-brown cheese, which should take about 30 to 35 minutes. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with the leftover parsley.