October 3, 2006

Baked Ziti Redux

This one'll be short but there will be more this week. I swear. Working 60-plus hours a week will not stop this gourmetro. (mono might, but we'll cross that bridge when we're forced onto it)

Last week I made one of my favorite fall/winter meals, baked ziti. It's near and dear to my heart and I tore it up when I made it last week. Oh, and tearing it up is like ripping it apart. It's a good thing, I think.

When I decided to eat ziti for the week I had a momentary epiphany: why am I adding 3/4 cup of water when I could be adding 3/4 cup of wine? That's it. Red wine made that kickin' ziti even better. I used a Cabernet Franc, but any full-bodied red should do. If you're a purist, use an Italian red like Chiante or Barolo.

My other alteration was that I shredded my own block of mozzarella. It made a big difference, much more stringy and moist than the pre-shredded stuff. And I used Polly-O, so nice, fresh mozz would be even dreamier.

Oh, that and a pound and a half of mild sage sausage (most of the fat reserved ;) ).


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Special thanks to viamarisol over at flickr for the extreme close-up.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When did you have mono?
PS this is the best blog ever.

skip said...

I never have had mono, actually, though i have been quite exposed to it a number of times. It's probably just laying in wait for another one of those 60+ hour weeks. I just meant that mono is the only thing that could stop this gourmetro. I'm glad you like the blog, whoever you are, and I'll try to update it more often. It's nice to know we have a reader.

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