Three-Cheese Baked Ziti with Homemade Alfredo Sauce

This is comfort food, y'all.  It's rich.  It's heavy.  It's creamy.  It's cheesy.  What more could you want?

The original recipe came from Southern Living's Dinner in a Dish.  It calls for a whole pound of pasta, and everything is baked in a 9-x13-inch pan (resulting in 8-10 servings).  I cut the amount of pasta in half, and baked all in a 7-x9-inch glass casserole dish.  So if you prefer more pasta than sauce, go the way of Southern Living.  My desired pasta-to-sauce ratio will always be heavy on the sauce side.

I'm not a big fan of grocery store Alfredo sauce.  Maybe I just haven't tasted the right brand.  Who knows? Well, I may never know since I found Dawn's recipe for Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce.  It is scrumptious.  And easy.  (I don't do anything "quick" in the kitchen, so can't vouch for that.) Dawn says, "The secret is cream cheese!" -- I believe her.

A pot of water takes absolutely forever to boil on top of my RV gas stove, so I try to get that started first thing.  Then I make the Alfredo sauce.  After those two are done, I make the other filling and transfer all to the casserole dish.  Bake until things are bubbly and starting to brown on top.  Serve with a side salad and a thick slice of French or garlic (or both!) bread, and you have a satisfying meatless meal.

For the Alfredo sauce:  Melt a stick of butter (8 tablespoons) in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat.  Add 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese and 2 teaspoons garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add 2 cups milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps.  Stir in 3/4 cup grated Parmesan (I use the kind often found on the pasta aisle) and 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I eyeball it; probably use more). Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency (I usually let it thicken a bit).  Try not to drink it.

Three-Cheese Baked Ziti

Adapted from "Three-Cheese Baked Pasta" in Southern Living's Dinner in a Dish.

Ingredients

• 8 oz dried ziti pasta (penne or rigatoni could also be used)
  
• a batch of Dawn's Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce (recipe above or here)
  
• 4 oz sour cream
  
• 8 oz ricotta cheese
  
• 1 lg egg, lightly beaten
  
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  
• 1/8 cup dried parsley
  
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain and return to pot.
   
2. Stir sour cream into Alfredo sauce. Toss with pasta. Spoon half of pasta mixture into a lightly buttered 7-x9-inch casserole dish.
   
3. Stir together ricotta cheese, beaten egg, grated Parmesan, and parsley. Spread evenly over pasta mixture in casserole dish.
   
4. Spoon remaining pasta evenly over ricotta cheese layer. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella.
   
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until set, bubbly, and starting to brown.

Yield: about 6 servings

Enjoy!

Shared at Making a Home Linky, This is How We Roll, Thrifty Thursday, From the Farm, and Happiness is Homemade.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click a link and buy something. This helps pay for the RV, supports our mountain homestead dream of owning land, as well as my blogging activities, and makes the dogs happy.  Hopefully, the purchase benefits you, too!  The price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! Thanks for reading, following, and supporting Stephlin's Mountain.

Ham & Pineapple Pasta Salad Recipe

I've been trying quite a few new recipes of late.  Until just a few months ago, I didn't cook.  (True story!) But it's a skill I want to get better at, and it's been said practice makes perfect.

When I first began gathering recipes, I hit a lucky streak.  Either the recipe was delicious as is, or I at least knew what I could do to make it more to our liking.  Recently, however, that luck has gone.  It seems everything I've tried has either been ho hum or plain ol' yuck.  Frustration has set in – I'm ill from wasting money, and tired of eating stuff I don't want so as to not waste more money.

Ever been there?

Enter this simple, seemingly modest pasta salad with a classic flavor combination, and a base of only four ingredients:  ham, pineapple, green onion, and macaroni.

I'll bet that caused a mixed reaction.  Some of you might think I'm just plain crazy, and others are on the side of ho hum.  Please allow me to finish.  I haven't told you about the dressing, yet.

The sweet, yet sour, and oddly creamy – more like a sauce – dressing.  It takes this pasta salad from um, ok to wow.  Jack. Pot.

There are a few more ingredients needed for the dressing, but nothing too crazy – mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, sugar, and apple cider vinegar.  You just might have all that in your fridge and pantry right now.

You really ought to try this maybe weird concoction.  I can eat it all alone for a meal.  We even ate it as a side dish with barbecued pork chops and zucchini patties.  Regardless of how we ate it, two adults finished the bowlful in 24 hours.

Here's how to make it.

Ham & Pineapple Pasta Salad

Adapted from The Recipe Critic.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. dry elbow macaroni
  
• 1 (20 oz.) can pineapple chunks (in juice, not syrup), drained -- reserve juice for dressing!
  
• 2 cups cubed ham
  
• 3/4 to 1 cup green onion (green parts), sliced
  
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  
• 1/4 cup honey flavored Greek yogurt
  
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
  
• 1 tbsp. sugar
  
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup reserved pineapple juice

Instructions

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Rinse in cold water.
   
2. In a large bowl, combine pasta, pineapple chunks, cubed ham, and green onion slices. (I used 3/4 cup green onion, then went back and added more.)
   
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, apple cider vinegar, sugar, and reserved pineapple juice. (I needed more juice to combat the cider vinegar, so start with a 1/2 cup and taste.)
   
4. Pour over pasta and combine.
   
5. Try not to eat it all in one sitting!

Yield: 4 - 6 servings

Shared at Thrifty Thursday, From the Farm, Happiness is Homemade, and Tasty Tuesdays.

Hope you find it as tasty as we did. From my mountaintop to yours,

Do what you can with what you have…and don't forget to take pictures.  Well, I got half of it right.  I didn't do so hot with the pictures part.

Does the word "picture" sound antiquated to you? It does to me.

Anyway. It was just me and the dogs for dinner one night.  I wanted something easy, hearty, comforting, and meat-free.  Easy, peasy, right? For someone who doesn't cook, not so much.  So I turned to an expert – Rachael Ray, and settled on her Boo's Butternut Squash Mac-n-Cheese recipe from 365: No Repeats.

I went to the store to get some frozen butternut squash.  The recipe actually calls for it initially in that state.  I didn't have time to roast one anyway, and to be honest, I didn't want to.  Unfortunately, there was no frozen butternut squash to be found in the store I chose.  So I went with what was available, yellow squash with onions (still of the frozen variety).

Got home and fumbled my way through the recipe, making little adjustments here and there, and finally got a finished product.

Y'all.  It was good! Real good.

If I've piqued your curiosity, and you want to know more, here's what I did:

Summer Squash Macaroni and Cheese

Adapted from "Boo's Butternut Squash Mac-n-Cheese" by Rachael Ray in the 365: No Repeats cookbook.

Ingredients

• coarse salt
  
• 1/2 lb. penne pasta
  
• 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
  
• 1 tbsp. dried thyme (or 2 tbsp. chopped fresh)
  
• 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
  
• 1 (14-oz.) can chicken broth
  
• 1 bag frozen yellow squash with onions (about 12 oz.), defrosted 
  
• 1 cup half and half
  
• 2 cups (8 oz.) grated sharp Cheddar cheese
  
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan-Romano
  
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Boil pasta in salted water according to package directions.
   
2. While the pasta cooks, heat a medium heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the extra-virgin olive oil and butter. When the butter melts into the oil, add the thyme and cook for a minute or 2. Add the flour and cook for a minute or 2 more. Whisk in the broth, then add the squash and onion mixture. Cook until warmed through. [At this point, I broke up the squash into smaller pieces. Nothing too difficult, just allowed it to go a bit and begin to break down.]
   
3. Stir in the half and half and bring the sauce to a bubble. Stir in the cheeses in a figure-eight motion and season the completed sauce with salt and pepper, adjusting for taste.
   
4. Drain the cooked pasta well and combine with the sauce.

Yield: 5+ servings

Hope you like it! From my mountaintop to yours.

Shared at From the Farm, Freedom Fridays, Simple & Sweet Fridays, Chain "Linky" Climb, The Art of Homemaking Mondays, and Tasty Tuesdays.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click a link and buy something. This helps support my mountain homestead dream as well as my blogging activities, and the price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! Thanks for reading, following, and supporting Stephlin's Mountain.