Not Quite Baked Ziti

I used to love the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. On the show, Raymond lives next door to his parents. To make him visit, his mother would lure him with her cooking, much to his wife Debra's annoyance.

One of Raymond's mother's specialty was Baked Ziti. I was curious of course and found out that ziti is a type of pasta. It is similar to penne except that it is straight cut and does not have ridges.

I went hunting for it at the supermarket but could not find any ziti. But I found something that I thought looked like it, but smaller and shorter.

Macaroni. I have baked pasta before using elbow macaroni and have not baked any for a long time. So it was time for some cheesy comfort food (very strange for someone who has a love hate relationship with cheese).

It was quite easy for me to put this baked pasta together because I already made meat sauce earlier (for something else) and these were in the freezer.

All I had to do was defrost and heat up the sauce, boil some macaroni and I was ready roll. I did what I saw on Youtube (hah..hah...) where you mix the pasta with the meat sauce and cheese and then you layer it with extra sauce in a casserole dish. Top up with cheese and bake!

I know this "baked ziti" of mine is somewhat lacking in the cheese department and it was not cheesy and creamy as what it should be. You see, I was greedy and made another 2 portions to freeze but I only had one packet of pasta cheese on hand.

But still, I enjoyed my meal (eaten in two sittings, ok?) and I have a feeling that a better version will be out soon.