BAKED ZITI [Everyone Gets a Corner Piece!]

this video is sponsored by audible hey what's up a great big ziti is a powerful tool in the fight to help make the people you love feel very happy with food but not all big ziti is created equal i've seen a lot of frumpy overly cheese grainy big zitis out on the internet so today i'm going to show you how to make a proper pan of baked ziti to make the people you love feel very happy so to get started preheat your broiler to its highest setting and grab two pounds of 80 20 ground beef i'm gonna be spreading this ground beef out onto a sheet tray in about a half inch thick meat sheet and then i'm going to load that under my broiler to get a little caramelization on this beef and check back in about 10 minutes next for the aromatic vegetable base of this sauce i'm going to grab my food processor and into that goes one small red onion or a half of a large one chopped four garlics one large carrot also chopped two chopped celery stalks and as an additional chef boy move a quarter bulb of fennel that's optional though i'm gonna chop these veggies down into something between a pulp and a small dice probably 10 to 15 pulses in the food chopper is all you need and there we go it's broken down pretty far but it's not mush next i'm gonna pre my six and a half quart dutch oven over medium high heat and once it's hot i'm gonna glug in about a quarter cup of olive oil and then flip in my veggies behind that comes a big pinch of salt to help these veggies sweat out and then i'm gonna stir everything up to combine and cook this for about five to six more minutes once that moisture is all cooked off and the pot is starting to glaze up with this brown fondy stuff i'm gonna add in 70 grams of tomato paste stir that in and fry it off for a few minutes raw tomato paste doesn't taste very good and then i'm going to deglaze the whole thing with about 100 grams of dry white wine if you have any particular brown sticky spots i suggest using the wood handle of this rubber spatula flip it over scrape those up next goes in one 28 ounce can of nice crushed tomatoes 400 grams of chicken or beef stock and 100 grams of whole milk now a stir up to combine reduce the heat to medium low and bring that back to a simmer back to the beef it's been 10 minutes and now it's ready to come out of the oven it's been broiled really hard and it's super well caramelized if we had done this on the stove it definitely would have taken a lot more time and a lot more attention now we're going to transfer this beef over to a cutting board and give it a chop to break it all down we're not looking for anything fancy here we're just trying to run the knife through four to five times until it looks kind of like dog food and yeah that looks like it unseasoned hard cooked beef chunks mmm dry okay i'm gonna move this beef over into that simmering tomato sauce and now the pot is gonna go into a 350 degree oven to cook for two hours while we talk about an essential element of this famous baked cd the ricotta i've opted to show you guys how to make your own ricotta here because the difference between grainy wet stuff that's available at the grocery store and real deal whole milk ricotta is very very large it's similar to homemade bread versus supermarket stuff in that it's not even the same food when you look at them side by side so to make this i've got a two quart pot here and into that i'm gonna measure a half gallon of whole milk oh why did i grab it like that on top of that goes 200 grams of heavy cream and i'm going to turn the burner on to medium heat so that i can slowly bring the temperature of this milk up we want to do this over the course of about 20 minutes because milk is basically pure sugar in the form of lactose and that can scorch very easily if we use high heat and don't stir often enough once the milk is heated to 190 degrees fahrenheit i'm going to add in 15 grams of salt let that melt real quick and then i'm going to turn off the heat then comes 100 grams of white distilled vinegar and i'm adding that in very carefully so i don't agitate this mixture too much once the vinegar is added i'm going to come back with a wooden spoon and very gently and very methodically stir this up to combine the acidity of the vinegar is going to coagulate the proteins in the milk and if we stir it too much it's going to shear all those coagulated milk chunks into a soupy mess that won't easily separate into curds and whey once that's stirred up it's time to let this ricotta rest and continue to separate and firm up for about 20 more minutes and after 20 minutes the curd is very well separated from the whey as you can see here the whey is that clear yellow milk water and we don't want that so to get rid of that my cheese tool of choice is my salad spinner we're gonna set up two layers of cheesecloth and once i've got that layered in there i'm gonna grab a slotted spoon and grab some of the curd off the top and as you can see this ricotta is really well set and it looks super pretty it's really creamy i'm gonna transfer this over to that cheesecloth and repeat that five or six times until about half is strained off the top next i'm gonna grab the pot and then gently pour the rest into the cheesecloth doing the first step of scooping the curds off the top helps avoid any heavy splashing that would break the curd into tiny pieces that would slip through this cheesecloth and bum me out now i'm going to gather up the sides of the cloth here and pull the whole thing out of the bowl there's no flavor in this way really so we're gonna drain that off and now we're gonna let the cheese drain in this bowl for about 15 more minutes so that we can get a little bit more juice out of that curd in the meantime it's been about one hour so we're about halfway through cooking this meat sauce in the oven so i'm gonna give it a little stir starting to get a little bit reduced in there it's a little bit caramelized on top and i just really love this method of cooking meat sauce it saves me so much attention i don't really need to babysit the sauce all day and it cooks the sauce faster i'm gonna throw this back into the oven now and let's check back on the cheese after about 15 to 20 minutes of draining the ricotta is ready to rip it's everything you want in a fresh cheese you guys it's milky and sweet it's got a little hint of mellow acidity from the vinegar and it's got a really nice salinity from the salt we added i highly recommend you treat yourself to fresh rico at least once in your life now i'm going to transfer this ricotta to a container to let it chill in the fridge until we're ready to finish the zit after about two hours this meat sauce is ready to come out the ground meat has been cooked enough to actually be broken down and tender which i love i'm always so bummed out when meat sauce has tough nuggets of meat in it that are fully cooked but also not cooked long enough so that fat doesn't melt and then you're chewing on a weird piece of beef gum totally gross now to finish this sauce i'm going to add in 20 grams of sugar 8 to 10 grams of salt it's up to you and 20 grams of nice sweet balsamic vinegar i'm gonna stir that up and give it a taste oh yeah next i'm gonna throw in a pot of about four quarts of water for the pasta next that goes a small saucepan to make something pretty untradition for a ziti bechamel sauce to make that into the little pot we're going to measure 50 grams of butter let that get melted then i'm going to whisk in 25 grams of all-purpose flour and once that's looking bubbly and just starting to fry up a bit we've got a roux now i'm gonna splash in my milk once that first bit of milk is whisked in and it's starting to get thick i'm gonna add a splash more whisk that in and then finally all the milk goes in for 225 grams of whole milk total once that's whisked up to the point of no clumps we're gonna simmer for about one minute to cook off any raw flour flavor and to thicken this thing up when it runs off the whisk kind of saucy like this you've got a finished bechamel this goes off the heat and now we're gonna boil our pasta in goes a strong pinch of salt then the ziti and i'm only cooking about 80 of this box because of the vessel that we're going to be making this in in a minute but i will get to that we're only trying to cook this pasta about 75 percent of the way there it's gonna finish cooking in the oven when we do the baked part of this big ziti so we only need about seven minutes in the water at that point i'm gonna give it a taste it should still be quite al dente and yeah that's good now we're gonna reserve 200 grams of this cooking liquid real quick then i'm going to drain the water off this pasta but keep the noodles in the pot on top of that pasta goes 600 grams of the finished meat sauce 200 grams of pasta water then all of the bechamel we've made that's about 200 grams or so and this is controversial most of the recipes online just throw tons of ricotta right into the pasta but we all know that leads to grainy wet not delicious ziti we're gonna be using the ricotta we made to play a starring role later on front and center it's gonna be on top of the finished dish it's gonna be very pro next goes in 75 grams of grated part skim mozzarella then 50 grams of grated parmesan now everything's going to get stirred up to combine and once it's combined we're gonna flip this over into our special vessel i've got a eight by eight brownie pan here i chose this because most people have them and most importantly it's gonna give us maximum browned edges on the finished seat now i'm gonna move the ziti over into this brownie pan and no need to grease this because there's probably about 2 000 calories of fat in this dish so far and once this is all in the pan now we're gonna finish this with one more chef boy move we're gonna be getting these noodles facing the same direction to do that i've got a chopstick here but anything thin and pointy will help organize these noodles in the same direction and if you're thinking this is insane you're probably right i am insane insane for a proper ziti you guys lining up the noodles like this surely will give us more structural integrity but skip it if you want not essential for success now that looks good i'm going to smooth the top with my cup measure here and then i'm going to load this onto a sheet tray and then into a 425 degree oven to bake for 45 minutes now would be the right time to get caught up on all these dirty dishes that i've made and during little bits of downtime like this i like to read an audiobook from the sponsor of this video audible right now i'm going back to re-listen to gabrielle hamilton's blood bones and butter this is an amazing title that i really recommend checking out if you're a fan of anthony bourdain's kitchen confidential which is also available to download or stream anywhere on your device via audible as you can imagine between working as a full-time chef and making videos i pretty much have no free time but audible makes it simple and easy to use passive time like driving or washing the dishes to enjoy the extremely well-written pros of gabrielle hamilton she did her own narration for this book and i really love that i love her style so much if you want to give audible a try go to audible.com weeds and sardines or text weeds and sardines to 500-500 and your first month is free and whether you want to learn something new or go for a well-deserved diversion audible has you covered again audible.com wheezing sardines or tex weeds and sardines to 500-500 thanks audible after 45 minutes in the oven this big ziti looks absolutely amazing it's caramelized around the edges it's got some of those crispy noodles and it just smells so sick now you can let this cool for a few minutes top it with some ricotta and some reserved meat sauce and eat it right now you'll be very happy but the real way to do this is to grab a second brownie pan set that right on top put a couple pounds of weight in there i've got two 20 ounce cans of tomatoes and now i'm going to cool this to room temperature and then let it press and set up in the fridge overnight now the next day this zidi is fully set into a totally psychotic final product the noodles have absorbed all of that meaty sauce and the whole thing is ready for our pleasure now i'm gonna cut this into four entree big dog size pieces that way everyone gets a nice large hard cooked brown corner piece and look at this reveal all the noodles are lined up my god look at this okay to finish this thing i'm going to set this piece of ziti on a wire rack on a little baby sheet tray and bake in a 425 degree oven to get this thing all the way heated through after 10 minutes or so in the oven we're hot and now we're going to finish this like chicken parm i'm going to top this ziti with a combo of shredded mozzarella chopped fresh mozzarella and grated parmesan it's about equal parts of all three there's about a half cup of cheese on top and then under the broiler it's gonna go we're gonna try this for about 20 seconds rotate the ziti and then char for about another 20 seconds and after that we've got a hot toasty cheesy baked ziti fit for anyone whether you're going through a hard time and you need to be comforted or it's saturday night and you just want to have some fun big ziti is a perfect meal the finishing touches here are some additional meat sauce make sure you get about a half cup of that a huge dollop of that fresh milky sweet ricotta and i'm looking at some crunchy toasty caramelized pasta corners here i am so stoked let's eat this thing [Music] huh before i get out of here if you uh support this channel on kofi thank you guys so much it goes directly into developing these videos if you like this video please give it a like and as always guys thank you so much for your time and attention thank you for sticking around we'll see you next time

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 164,891

Keywords: baked ziti, baked ziti recipe, how to make baked ziti, ziti recipe, bake ziti, bake ziti recipe, baked ziti with ground beef, baked ziti with ricotta, mostaccioli, pasta casserole, fresh ricotta, ziti with bechamel sauce, best baked ziti recipe, baked pasta recipe, baked pasta, best baked ziti, pasta al forno, weeds and sardines, brian lagerstrom, recipes, cooking, chef, pasta, baked ziti recipe with ground beef

Id: yn5nKsMN2fY

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021