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1 pound dry pasta (ziti or penne)
1 onion
1 pound ground turkey
1 tablespoon fresh, finely chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon oregano
5 cloves of garlic
2 jars of spaghetti sauce
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup cottage cheese
6 ounces sliced provolone
8 ounces grated mozzarella
Olive Oil
Parmesan cheese
For those of you who wonder what our TV friends are making when they start glorifying baked ziti, well, here is something that comes close. Now, I've never seen ziti pasta in the store, but smaller penne looks really similar. Really, baked ziti is just a layered baked pasta dish like lasagna. If all you have is macaroni, by all means, use that. It really doesn't matter. One thing is that you want the pasta to hold sauce (gravy, heh heh), so a hole through the middle is good. Another thing is that it should have thick walls so it stands up to baking.
Boil the pasta according to the directions on the package. Cook it on the chewy side. You know, bite the pasta, and it should be a little chewy towards the center. It shouldn't just fall apart clean when you bite. If you cook the pasta too much, then it will be all limp and icky after you bake it in the sauce:
While the pasta is cooking, start browning the ground turkey in a bit of olive oil:
Chop up an onion after the turkey has cooked a wee bit and throw it in the pan.
What you want to do is get the turkey completely cooked without any pink and cook the onion until it is soft at the same time.
Here is a picture of fresh rosemary:
Take all of the stems off and chop the rosemary into tiny bits. Rosemary doesn't really cook down that well, so you need to make sure the pieces aren't too large. Press some garlic through a press, and add the rosemary, garlic, and oregano to the turkey and onion mixture when done:
Stir in the two jars of spaghetti sauce, and let it simmer for a bit. Put half of the cooked pasta in the bottom of a rectangular baking dish, and cover it with half of the sauce mixture:.
Spoon on a thin layer of sour cream and cottage cheese over the sauce. Put slices of provolone on top of that, and then cover with the rest of the pasta:
Cover the pasta with the rest of the sauce, cover the sauce with the grated mozzarella and sprinkle with parmesan cheese:
Bake at 350 degrees for about a half an hour. The cheese should be all melty and a wee bit golden on top in spots:
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