Cooking Question for Party- Baked Ziti

You can cook the entire thing and reheat it when you're ready.

My family is Italian. I grew-up with all things like this, and most Italian dishes reheat really well, even for a few days. If you do choose to make it in advance, it needs to be fully cooked and then reheated. You'll need to add extra sauce and a sprinkle of water or two to re-moisten the dish.

If you really want to be authentic, most Italian sauces DO NOT contain ground beef but do have a roast marinating in them or Italian sausages.

Good luck!

You can get it all together & ready in the pan...cover with foil at least a day in advance if you need to. It will be fine.
Also, I'd take it out of the fridge about 2 hours before you bake it so it's not as cold when it goes into the oven. Good luck!

I make baked mostaccoli for Thanskgiving. And that is one busy day. I usually cook the noodles and mix in the sauce etc, Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, Then I put on the cheese before throwing it in the oven. Adding the sauce prevents the noodles from drying up. Just make sure you cover the pan well.

I agree, you can put it all together the day before and refridgerate. Couple things though, #1 - Make sure you don't cook the pasta all the way, it should be slightly underdone because it will absorb the sauce during baking and if it's cooked too long in the first place it will get mushy. #2 - Make sure you cover it tightly in the refridgerator so that it doesn't dry out on the top. I would also give it a stir to redistribute the sauce. #3 - If you sprinkle cheese on the top, I would wait until you bake it to do that.

Otherwise, you could always make each part ahead and store them separately, and mix together just before baking. Make sure to butter the noodles so they don't stick together.

Check out the recipes of www.foodtv.com (I'm a big fan of Giada DiLaurentis) and www.allrecipes.com. You should be able to prepare the entire baked ziti casserole earlier in the day and pop it into the oven an hour or so before it is time to eat. Make sure that you put the casserole dish into the cold oven before turning the oven on if you are cooking it in a glass dish. This will prevent the cold dish from possibly breaking in the extremely hot oven.

Hope everything turns out well. Ciao!

Hi there
This is easy - you can cook this the day before and then just warm it up before you need to serve. I'm going to suggest a jar of Ragu sauce and get some grated pecorino romano cheese and a package of mozzarella cheese. Cook your pasta till it's al dente - not HARD and chewy but not totally cooked because when you heat it up it will cook more. ON THE BOTTOM OF THE PAN put a light layer of sauce then dump HALF the ziti in the pan and put a bit of sauce on it and mix it together. THen dump the rest of the ziti in and put some sauce on top, sprinkle with grated cheese and mozzarella cheese, cover with foil and put it in the fridge once it's cooled off. The next day, pre heat your oven to 350 and put it in the oven for about 40 minutes before you serve - this will melt the cheese and warm the pasta up.

I bake it the day before, freeze it.......add butter on top of it before I heat it up and it taste just like it was freshly baked...........don't know if we use the same recipe tho....

Hamburger, ziti noodles (cooked) , tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, some seasoning......mix together, add shredded cheese on top and cook.....

Also, I don't use foil..........too afraid that the acid in the sauce will mix with the foil and make it nasty.....but up to you.....

Good Luck and have a great time.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Ziti-III/Detail.aspx

This is our favorite ziti recipe. It makes quite a bit. I always put it together the day before. Then the day of the party I just throw it in the over before quests come over. It is always a hit and it always turns out great!

I think you can make it now and freeze it. Just giv eit enough cooking time. I also think you oculd jus tmake it 2-3 days ahead and leave it in th efridge.