Baked Ziti with Sausage and Vegetables

Welcome to one of my family meal challenge dishes!

If you've read my blog description, you may have noticed each month I have more and more posts, rather than just a few per week. I've actually started cooking a few times a week for myself, baking at least once a week, and cooking a meal for my four-person household once a week.

The Recipe: Baked Ziti with Sausage and Vegetables

• 1/2 box of Ziti pasta
• 1/2 can of pizza sauce (or any desired pasta Sauce)
• Mozzarella, Alfredo, Parmesean, and Romano Cheese (again, use desired cheese)
• Four small frozen sausage links
• 1 1/2 cup halved mushrooms
• 1 zuchini

The Process:

• Boil about 1.5 cups of water in a covered pan
• Cook pasta to desired stiffness
• Broil sausage links in the oven on High. After about five minutes, turn the links and broil for another few minutes. They should be fully browned and bubbling, but not burnt.
• Slice zucchini and cut slices in half
• cut small mushrooms in half
• In an oven-safe container, cover the bottom layer with pasta
• Cover the pasta with sauce
• Cover the sauce with sausage and vegetables
• Cover the sausage and vegetables with sauce
• Cover the sauce with pasta
• Cover the pasta with sauce
• Cover the sauce with cheese
• Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees

The Calories:

Pasta: 400 calories
Sauce: 70 calories
Sausage: 267 calories
Mushrooms: 30 calories
Zucchini: 20 calories
Cheese: 180 calories
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TOTAL: 967

However, this was shared by three members of the family (the fourth deciding to only eat pasta and sausage links, plain), so each person ate approximately 323 calories :)

What went right:

          The pasta was good, although not quite baked. The sausage links were also cooked correctly. Everything tasted right together, and it was a very healthy dish.

What went wrong:
          Like I said, the pasta was not quite baked long enough to be considered baked, so I know I need to bake it longer. Also, the raw vegetables lacked the carmelization to really release their flavor.

What I would do next time:
         First of all, I would bake the dish for half an hour to really get all the flavors to cook together. Additionally, I would broil the zucchini and either broil or sautee the mushrooms as well, to get them to caramelize. I would also heat the sauce before adding it, and put more sauce throughout the dish to make sure it covers everything. To make it a special dish for each season, I could change or add vegetables, such as switching the type of squash. I might also try using different meats, although using frozen sausage links will be the easiest to accomplish in college than anything else.

Would I do this in college:
          Yeah I think I'd do this in college...it would be easy to scale down and even if I didn't, I don't see a reason the dish wouldn't keep and reheat well.

Overall, a tasty challenge dish that I will be doing again to get it just right...stay tuned!