This is a great and hearty meal. Penne is layered with sausage, ricotta, mozzarella and tomato sauce, then baked until bubbling.
Wow, this made so much food! We made some changes to the dish, and it was amazing! We only baked it for 35 minutes because the cheese on top was getting overdone on 350 degrees F. We used turkey instead of sausage and added 2 cloves of garlic and a half cup of yellow onion to spice up the turkey. Also we used 1 jar of Emmeril's "Roasted Red Pepper" sauce in addition to one jar of the marinara. Using only 3 cups of cheese instead of 4 made us feel better about the high fat content. But we used italian cheese instead of just plain mozzarella. It was excellent, and now we have food for days! - 15 Sep 2004 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
This truly is the Best Ziti Ever. It makes an enormous amount of food, so this would be great to take to a pot luck dinner or just to serve a large family. The smell while it was cooking was absolutely divine. I felt like I was at an Italian restaurant. This dish is restaurant quality. I didn't change a thing. It is perfect just the way it is. Thank you for posting this wonderful recipe. - 25 Nov 2007 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
Like others, I found this recipe made waaaaay more than I thought it would. I'm really glad I cut it in half, as there are only two of us . I added some sauteed mushrooms to the sausage layers. I also mixed fresh basil in with the ricotta, and used oregano and marjoram instead of italian seasoning (I didn't have any). We both love anything with ricotta cheese, and the cheese was definitely a star in this dish. Even though it has pasta in it, I found that the leftovers were very good, not dry at all. It froze nicely, too. A delicious alternative to lasagna, I'll make this again for sure! - 28 Oct 2006 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)