Baked Ziti

Method

1. boil6 min
   heavily salted water, 4 minutes short of the box time
   ziti until the tubes still snap when bitten, then drain without rinsing — pasta keeps absorbing liquid in a covered baking dish, and anything cooked through on the stove comes out of the oven as paste
2. saute6 min
   medium
   olive oil + onion until translucent, + garlic + oregano for the last minute only; garlic added at the start of a six-minute sauté goes bitter before the onion is soft
3. caramelize2 min
   medium-high
   + tomato paste, stirred against the hot pan until it darkens from red to brick — this is where the sauce gets the depth that a 15-minute simmer cannot supply
4. simmer15 min
   low, partly covered
   + crushed tomato + 1 tsp salt + black pepper, until the sauce coats a spoon and no longer tastes of raw can. Keep it looser than you would for a plated pasta — the ziti will drink some of it in the oven
5. whisk3 min
   blender or food processor
   cottage cheese + egg + parmesan + 0.25 tsp salt until completely smooth. The egg is structural, not decorative: its protein sets around the curds and holds the whey in place, and cottage cheese folded in without it breaks under oven heat and leaves a watery layer at the bottom of the dish
6. fold3 min
   off heat
   drained ziti + three-quarters of the sauce + the whole cheese mixture + basil, turning gently until every tube is coated inside and out. Off the heat matters — stir the egg mixture into a hot pan and it scrambles into visible threads
7. bake25 min
   375°F / 190°C, covered with foil
   the ziti pressed level into a buttered dish, remaining sauce spooned over the top, foil on. Covered means the trapped steam hydrates the underdone pasta; uncovered at this stage the exposed tubes dry into hard shards
8. broil6 min
   foil off, 425°F or low broil
   + mozzarella scattered over the surface, until blistered and browned in patches. Low-moisture mozzarella is the point here — fresh mozzarella releases its packing water onto the top and steams instead of browning
9. rest10 min
   out of the oven, uncovered
   undisturbed, so the molten cheese and sauce set enough to hold a cut edge; sliced straight from the oven it slumps into a single pool on the plate