Three Cheese Crock-Pot Ziti

Recipe: Crock-Pot Ziti

Source: The Orange Strainer 

Time: 4 hours and 15 minutes total

Ease: 1

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: 5

Down the Drain or Keep it in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

By now you know that I love my crock-pot.  After all, what's not to love about something you can toss a bunch of ingredients into, walk away from for a few hours, and upon your return be greeted with a fully cooked meal ready to be devoured?

I can't think of anything better.

My mom's friend gave her a recipe for crock-pot baked ziti.  We improvised it a little, and this is what we came up with.

Ingredients:

15 oz Ricotta cheese
16 oz Mozzarella cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 box (16 oz) ziti
2 (26 oz) spaghetti sauce (any kind)

Start by tossing your mozzarella into a big bowl.  Don't be like me and forget to thaw your frozen mozzarella and then realize that your mozzarella is so frozen it is more like mozzarella ice cubes that refuse to be chipped away at.

Warning to the wise.  Thaw the night before or use fresh mozzarella.  Fresh mozzarella makes it more authentic, I guarantee.

Add a cup of Parmesan.

And 15 ounces of ricotta cheese.

Mix the three cheeses together so they are combined and you have a bowl full of white clumpy clouds.

Yum.  I probably could have just thrown this in the crock-pot and been completely satisfied.

Mental note to self....definitely, do that.

Take one of your cans of sauce and spread a light coating of it in the bottom of the crock-pot.

Add half of the uncooked* ziti noodles.

*Let me stress the word 'uncooked' here.  That's right.  No waiting for water to boil.  No waiting for the noodles to become al dente.  Just toss those bad boys raw style into the crock-pot.

Think of all that time I just saved you!**

That's about 30 minutes of YOU time!  Go read a book, do your nails, wash the dishes.

**Hint: This works really well with lasagna noodles too.  So, instead of calling this baked ziti, throw lasagna in and you have the easiest lasagna ever, I promise.  

Cover the noodles with the remaining sauce from can #1.  Toss the noodles so they are coated with sauce.

Spread half of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles.  This basically consists of plopping small spoonfuls all over.  This way the cheese will spread out as it melts and form a cheesy blanket on top of the noodles.

I just love cheesy blankets.

If you're feeling a little artistic, as I was, drizzle a little sauce from can #2 on top of the cheese layer.

Then cover the cheese with the rest of the noodles.

Cover the noodles with the remaining sauce.

As done previously, toss the noodles in the sauce.  For this layer of noodles you especially want to make sure that there aren't any unsauced noodles remaining.  That's right, I made up a word: unsauced.

Live with it.

If you have noodles that are unsauced they tend to not cook very well and become so hard that I'm sure they could be considered a lethal weapon....for your teeth that is.

Cover the saucy noodles with the remaining cheese.

Set the crock-pot to LOW for four hours.  Walk away and enjoy your life.

Or, set the crock-pot to HIGH for two hours.  Again, walk away and enjoy your life.  Watch a movie, write a poem, go for a walk.

Or blog.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure there is anything more beautiful than cheese, sauce, and noodles.

If there is, don't tell me.  I don't want to spoil this moment.

If serving to a large crowd, make sure you get one of the first servings.  That way you can get the best cheese choice possible.  The beauty of this recipe is that the biggest glob pictured here was the cheese sitting on top.  But, the middle layer of cheese is seen in the background.  That middle layer melted nicely into the bottom layer of noodles creating a mixture no man or woman could do on their on.

But the crock-pot set on LOW for four hours could do it magically.