Baked Ziti with Meat Sauce

Cooking Instructions

Heat Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook one minute stirring and being careful not to burn the garlic. When garlic has softened add ground beef. Break up meat with a wooden spoon and stir until no longer pink and there are no large chunks of meat. Add Crushed Tomatoes Tomato Sauce and dried parsley and stir to combine. Add one half cup of the grated Pecorino and stir to combine. Simmer meat sauce over low heat for one hour stirring occaasionally. Forty minutes before you are ready to eat preheat oven to 400 degrees and heat a large pot of water to boil over high heat. When water is boiling add some salt and ziti to pot and stir. Cook pasta for 8 minutes ONLY. The pasta will still be somewhat hard. Drain pasta and place in a large baking dish or ovenproof bowl. Pour meat sauce over the pasta and stir to combine completely. Sprinkle the remaining one half cup grated over the pasta and meat sauce mixture and bake for 30 minutes until top is golden and bubbly. Note: To lighten this recipe up you can substitute ground chicken for the ground beef.