Baked Ziti Plus

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic , sliced
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 cans crushed tomatoes , 28 ounce
• 1 can tomato puree , 28 ounce
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 3 pounds Italian link sausage
• 2 greens bell peppers , cut into 1/2-inch strips
• 1 large onion , sliced
• 2 packages rigatoni , 16 ounce
• 2 packages mozzarella cheese , 16 ounce
• 1 carton ricotta cheese , 24 ounce

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat olive oil in a stockpot over medium-low heat; cook and stir garlic in the hot oil until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes.

2. 2

   Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes; drain and discard grease. Stir ground beef into garlic. Add crushed tomatoes and tomato puree to ground beef mixture; season with salt and pepper. Cover stockpot and simmer mixture, stirring occasionally, until flavors have blended, about 2 hours.

3. 3

   Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook sausage links in the hot skillet until browned and not longer pink in the center, 10 to 15 minutes; drain and discard grease. Slice sausages into 1/4-inch rounds. Stir sausage, green bell pepper, and onion into the simmering tomato sauce; cook, stirring occasionally until bell pepper and onion are softened, about 1 hour.

4. 4

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

5. 5

   Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook rigatoni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, 10 to 11 minutes. Drain and return rigatoni to pot.

6. 6

   Dice about 3/4 the mozzarella into 1/8-inch cubes. Mix cubed mozzarella with ricotta cheese in a bowl. Stir cheese mixture into cooked rigatoni until mozzarella cheese begins to melt. Pour rigatoni-cheese mixture into 2 large casserole dishes; add tomato-meat sauce. Toss well.

7. 7

   Slice the remaining mozzarella cheese and arrange on top of rigatoni mixtures.

8. 8

   Bake in the preheated oven until mozzarella cheese is melted and browned, about 45 minutes.