My Culinary Adventures: Baked Ziti (ish)

My friends had left some quesillo (the closest thing we have to mozzarella) in my fridge from the welcome party we threw for the new North Coast PCVs, so I had been making a lot of grilled quesillo, tomato and basil sandwiches, but wanted to try something new.  I looked up some pasta recipes with mozzarella in them and came across Baked Ziti, which looked easy enough to do.  I altered the recipe a lot though, and it really can be whatever you want it to be.  I threw in some bell peppers that had been in my fridge forever (but still edible), and used the highly condimented beef they sell in site since it's impossible to find regular ground beef here unless I go to a city.  This actually turned out incredible, and I had a friend over for dinner and he said it was even better than his uncle's pasta dishes!  The only thing I would do differently is to use more quesillo so that it covered the entire top of the dish. 

Recipe

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 package dry shell pasta

1 package spaghetti

Salt

Olive Oil

1 pound ground beef (I used the condimented beef since that's all that's available in site)

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

2 (8 oz) bags of tomato paste

1 cup water

Ground oregano

Ground thyme

8 oz Sula mantequilla (sour cream)

1 tomato, cubed

1/2 pound grated quesillo (guessing on this, I didn't have enough when I made mine)

Dried basil for seasoning

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add salt and shells and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Add some olive oil to the drained pasta and mix so it doesn't stick together.
3. Cook the spaghetti the same way and add olive oil after.
4. In a large skillet, brown beef over medium heat. Add onions and bell pepper; saute until tender and until all water has evaporated.  Add tomato paste, water, oregano, and thyme to taste; simmer for about 15 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
6. Grease a glass pie plate with olive oil. Place one of the pastas in the dish; top with a layer of half the spaghetti sauce mixture and sour cream.
7. Cover with remaining pasta, sauce and sour cream; top with diced tomatoes, grated quesillo, and dried basil.
8. Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes or until cheese and sauce are bubbly; broil for about 5 minutes until cheese on top is a nice golden brown.  Serve.