[1 - 1] this video is sponsored by audible hey
[2 - 3] what's up a great
[3 - 5] big ziti is a powerful tool in the fight
[5 - 7] to help make the people you love
[7 - 9] feel very happy with food but not all
[9 - 11] big ziti is created equal i've seen a
[12 - 14] overly cheese grainy big zitis out on
[14 - 16] the internet so today i'm going to show
[16 - 18] you how to make a proper pan
[18 - 19] of baked ziti to make the people you
[19 - 22] love feel very happy so to get started
[22 - 23] preheat your broiler to its highest
[24 - 26] setting and grab two pounds of 80 20 ground beef
[26 - 27] and grab two pounds of 80 20 ground beef i'm gonna be spreading this ground beef
[27 - 29] out onto a sheet tray
[29 - 31] in about a half inch thick meat sheet
[31 - 32] and then i'm going to load that under my
[32 - 34] broiler to get a little caramelization
[35 - 37] and check back in about 10 minutes next
[37 - 39] for the aromatic vegetable base of this
[39 - 40] sauce i'm going to grab my food
[41 - 43] processor and into that goes one small red onion
[43 - 44] and into that goes one small red onion or a half of a large one
[44 - 47] chopped four garlics one large carrot
[47 - 49] also chopped two chopped celery stalks
[49 - 50] and as an additional chef boy move a
[50 - 52] quarter bulb of fennel that's optional
[52 - 54] though i'm gonna chop these veggies down
[54 - 55] into something between a pulp and a
[56 - 58] small dice probably 10 to 15 pulses in the
[58 - 59] dice probably 10 to 15 pulses in the food chopper is all you need and there
[60 - 62] it's broken down pretty far but it's not
[62 - 64] mush next i'm gonna pre my six and a
[64 - 66] half quart dutch oven over medium high
[66 - 68] heat and once it's hot i'm gonna glug in
[68 - 69] about a quarter cup of olive oil and
[70 - 71] then flip in my veggies behind that
[71 - 73] comes a big pinch of salt to help these
[73 - 74] veggies sweat out
[74 - 75] and then i'm gonna stir everything up to
[76 - 77] combine and cook this for about five to
[77 - 79] six more minutes once that moisture is
[79 - 80] all cooked off and the pot is starting
[80 - 82] to glaze up with this brown fondy stuff
[82 - 84] i'm gonna add in 70 grams of tomato
[84 - 86] paste stir that in and fry it off for a
[86 - 87] few minutes raw tomato paste doesn't
[87 - 88] taste very good and then i'm going to
[88 - 90] deglaze the whole thing with about 100
[90 - 92] grams of dry white wine if you have any
[92 - 94] particular brown sticky spots i suggest
[94 - 95] using the wood handle of this rubber
[96 - 98] spatula flip it over scrape those up next goes
[98 - 100] flip it over scrape those up next goes in one 28 ounce can of nice
[100 - 102] crushed tomatoes 400 grams of chicken or
[102 - 104] beef stock and 100 grams of whole milk
[104 - 106] now a stir up to combine
[106 - 107] reduce the heat to medium low and bring
[107 - 109] that back to a simmer back to the beef
[109 - 111] it's been 10 minutes and now it's ready
[111 - 112] to come out of the oven it's been
[112 - 114] broiled really hard and it's super well
[114 - 116] caramelized if we had done this on the
[116 - 117] stove it definitely would have taken a
[117 - 118] lot more time
[118 - 119] and a lot more attention now we're going
[119 - 121] to transfer this beef over to a cutting
[121 - 123] board and give it a chop to break it all
[123 - 124] down we're not looking for anything
[124 - 125] fancy here we're just trying to run the
[125 - 127] knife through four to five times until
[127 - 128] it looks kind of like
[128 - 130] dog food and yeah that looks like it
[131 - 135] unseasoned hard cooked beef chunks mmm dry
[135 - 136] hard cooked beef chunks mmm dry okay i'm gonna move this beef over into
[136 - 138] that simmering tomato sauce and now the
[138 - 140] pot is gonna go into a 350 degree oven
[140 - 142] to cook for two hours
[142 - 144] while we talk about an essential element
[144 - 145] of this famous baked cd
[145 - 147] the ricotta i've opted to show you guys
[147 - 149] how to make your own ricotta here
[149 - 151] because the difference between grainy
[151 - 152] wet stuff that's available at the
[152 - 153] grocery store and
[153 - 155] real deal whole milk ricotta is very
[156 - 158] it's similar to homemade bread versus
[158 - 160] supermarket stuff in that it's not even
[160 - 162] food when you look at them side by side
[162 - 163] so to make this i've got a two quart pot
[163 - 165] here and into that i'm gonna measure a
[165 - 168] half gallon of whole milk oh
[168 - 171] why did i grab it like that on top of
[171 - 172] that goes 200 grams of heavy cream
[172 - 174] and i'm going to turn the burner on to
[174 - 175] medium heat so that i can slowly bring
[175 - 177] the temperature of this milk up
[177 - 178] we want to do this over the course of
[178 - 180] about 20 minutes because milk is
[180 - 182] basically pure sugar in the form of
[182 - 184] lactose and that can scorch very easily
[184 - 186] if we use high heat and don't stir often
[186 - 188] enough once the milk is heated to 190
[188 - 189] degrees fahrenheit i'm going to add in
[189 - 191] 15 grams of salt let that melt real
[191 - 192] quick and then i'm going to turn off the
[193 - 194] heat then comes 100 grams of white distilled
[194 - 196] then comes 100 grams of white distilled vinegar and i'm adding that in
[196 - 198] very carefully so i don't agitate this
[198 - 199] mixture too much once the vinegar is
[199 - 200] added i'm going to come back with a
[200 - 202] wooden spoon and very gently and very
[202 - 204] methodically stir this up to combine the
[204 - 206] acidity of the vinegar is going to
[206 - 207] coagulate the proteins in the milk and
[208 - 209] if we stir it too much it's going to
[209 - 211] shear all those coagulated milk chunks
[212 - 213] soupy mess that won't easily separate
[214 - 215] into curds and whey once that's stirred
[216 - 217] up it's time to let this ricotta rest
[217 - 219] and continue to separate and firm up for
[219 - 221] about 20 more minutes and
[221 - 223] after 20 minutes the curd is very well
[223 - 225] separated from the whey as you can see
[225 - 228] here the whey is that clear yellow milk water
[228 - 229] the whey is that clear yellow milk water and we don't want that so to get rid of
[230 - 232] that my cheese tool of choice is my
[232 - 233] salad spinner we're gonna set up two
[233 - 234] layers of cheesecloth
[234 - 235] and once i've got that layered in there
[235 - 237] i'm gonna grab a slotted spoon and grab
[237 - 239] some of the curd off the top and as you
[239 - 241] can see this ricotta is really well set
[242 - 243] super pretty it's really creamy i'm
[243 - 244] gonna transfer this over to that
[244 - 246] cheesecloth and repeat that
[246 - 248] five or six times until about half is
[248 - 250] strained off the top next i'm gonna grab
[250 - 251] the pot and then gently pour the rest
[251 - 253] into the cheesecloth doing the first
[253 - 255] step of scooping the curds off the top
[255 - 257] helps avoid any heavy splashing that
[257 - 258] would break the curd into tiny pieces
[258 - 260] that would slip through this cheesecloth
[260 - 261] and bum me out now i'm going to gather
[262 - 263] up the sides of the cloth here and pull
[263 - 265] the whole thing out of the bowl
[265 - 266] there's no flavor in this way really so
[266 - 268] we're gonna drain that off and now we're
[268 - 270] gonna let the cheese drain in this bowl
[270 - 271] for about 15 more minutes so that we can
[271 - 273] get a little bit more juice
[273 - 274] out of that curd in the meantime it's
[274 - 275] been about one hour so we're about
[275 - 277] halfway through cooking this meat sauce
[277 - 278] in the oven so i'm gonna give it a
[279 - 280] starting to get a little bit reduced in
[280 - 282] there it's a little bit caramelized on
[282 - 284] i just really love this method of
[284 - 286] cooking meat sauce it saves me so much
[286 - 288] attention i don't really need to babysit the sauce
[288 - 290] i don't really need to babysit the sauce all day and it cooks the sauce faster
[290 - 291] i'm gonna throw this back into the oven
[291 - 293] now and let's check back on the cheese
[293 - 294] after about 15 to 20 minutes of draining
[295 - 297] is ready to rip it's everything you want
[297 - 299] in a fresh cheese you guys it's milky
[300 - 301] it's got a little hint of mellow acidity
[301 - 303] from the vinegar and it's got a really
[303 - 304] nice salinity from the salt we added
[304 - 306] i highly recommend you treat yourself to
[306 - 309] fresh rico at least once in your life
[309 - 309] now i'm going to transfer
[310 - 311] this ricotta to a container to let it
[311 - 313] chill in the fridge until we're ready to
[313 - 316] finish the zit after about two hours this meat
[316 - 317] the zit after about two hours this meat sauce is ready to come out the ground
[317 - 319] meat has been cooked enough to actually
[319 - 321] be broken down and tender which i love
[321 - 323] i'm always so bummed out when meat sauce
[323 - 325] has tough nuggets of meat in it that are
[325 - 327] fully cooked but also not cooked long
[327 - 329] enough so that fat doesn't melt and then
[329 - 331] you're chewing on a weird piece of beef
[332 - 333] gum totally gross now to finish this sauce
[333 - 335] totally gross now to finish this sauce i'm going to add in 20 grams of sugar
[335 - 338] 8 to 10 grams of salt it's up to you and
[338 - 339] 20 grams of nice
[339 - 341] sweet balsamic vinegar i'm gonna stir
[341 - 346] that up and give it a taste
[348 - 348] oh yeah next i'm gonna throw in a pot of
[348 - 350] about four quarts of water for the pasta
[350 - 352] next that goes a small saucepan to make
[352 - 354] something pretty untradition for a ziti
[354 - 356] bechamel sauce to make that into the
[356 - 357] little pot we're going to measure 50
[357 - 358] grams of butter
[358 - 360] let that get melted then i'm going to
[360 - 362] whisk in 25 grams of all-purpose flour
[362 - 363] and once that's looking bubbly and just
[364 - 365] starting to fry up a bit we've got a
[366 - 367] roux now i'm gonna splash in my milk once
[367 - 369] now i'm gonna splash in my milk once that first bit of milk is whisked in and
[369 - 370] it's starting to get thick i'm gonna add
[371 - 373] more whisk that in and then finally all
[373 - 376] the milk goes in for 225 grams of whole
[376 - 377] milk total once that's whisked up to the
[377 - 379] total once that's whisked up to the point of no clumps we're gonna simmer
[379 - 381] for about one minute to cook off any raw
[381 - 383] flour flavor and to thicken this thing
[383 - 385] up when it runs off the whisk kind of
[385 - 386] saucy like this you've got a finished
[387 - 389] bechamel this goes off the heat and now we're
[389 - 391] this goes off the heat and now we're gonna boil our pasta in goes a strong
[391 - 393] pinch of salt then the ziti and i'm only
[393 - 393] cooking about
[394 - 396] 80 of this box because of the vessel
[396 - 397] that we're going to be making this in in
[397 - 399] a minute but i will get to that we're
[399 - 401] only trying to cook this pasta about 75
[401 - 402] percent of the way there it's gonna
[402 - 404] finish cooking in the oven when we do
[404 - 406] the baked part of this big ziti so we
[406 - 407] only need about seven minutes in the
[408 - 409] water at that point i'm gonna give it a taste
[409 - 412] at that point i'm gonna give it a taste it should still be quite al dente
[412 - 413] and yeah that's good now we're gonna
[413 - 415] reserve 200 grams of this cooking liquid
[415 - 416] real quick then i'm going to drain the
[416 - 418] water off this pasta but keep the
[418 - 419] noodles in the pot on top of that pasta
[419 - 421] goes 600 grams of the finished meat
[422 - 424] sauce 200 grams of pasta water then all of the
[424 - 425] 200 grams of pasta water then all of the bechamel we've made that's about 200
[426 - 428] and this is controversial most of the
[428 - 429] recipes online just throw
[430 - 432] tons of ricotta right into the pasta but
[432 - 434] we all know that leads to grainy wet
[434 - 435] not delicious ziti we're gonna be using
[435 - 437] the ricotta we made to play a starring
[437 - 438] role later on
[438 - 440] front and center it's gonna be on top of
[440 - 441] the finished dish it's gonna be
[441 - 444] very pro next goes in 75 grams of grated
[444 - 445] part skim mozzarella
[445 - 447] then 50 grams of grated parmesan now
[447 - 448] everything's going to get stirred up to
[449 - 450] combine and once it's combined we're gonna flip
[450 - 452] and once it's combined we're gonna flip this over into our special vessel i've
[452 - 454] got a eight by eight brownie pan here
[454 - 456] i chose this because most people have
[456 - 458] them and most importantly it's gonna
[458 - 460] give us maximum browned edges on the
[460 - 462] finished seat now i'm gonna move the
[462 - 464] ziti over into this brownie pan and no
[464 - 465] need to grease this because there's
[465 - 468] probably about 2 000 calories of fat in
[468 - 469] this dish so far
[469 - 471] and once this is all in the pan now
[471 - 472] we're gonna finish this with one more
[472 - 474] chef boy move we're gonna be getting
[474 - 476] these noodles facing the same direction
[476 - 477] to do that i've got a chopstick here but
[478 - 479] anything thin and pointy will help
[479 - 481] organize these noodles in the same
[481 - 482] direction and if you're thinking
[482 - 484] this is insane you're probably right i
[485 - 488] insane for a proper ziti you guys lining
[488 - 489] up the noodles like this
[489 - 491] surely will give us more structural
[491 - 492] integrity but skip it if you want
[492 - 494] not essential for success now that looks
[494 - 496] good i'm going to smooth the top with my
[496 - 497] cup measure here and then i'm going to load
[497 - 499] measure here and then i'm going to load this onto a sheet tray and then into a
[499 - 501] 425 degree oven to bake
[501 - 503] for 45 minutes now would be the right
[503 - 505] time to get caught up on all these dirty
[505 - 507] dishes that i've made and during little
[507 - 508] bits of downtime like this i like to
[508 - 510] read an audiobook from the sponsor of
[510 - 512] this video audible right now i'm going
[512 - 514] back to re-listen to gabrielle
[514 - 516] hamilton's blood bones and butter
[516 - 517] this is an amazing title that i really
[517 - 519] recommend checking out if you're a fan
[519 - 520] of anthony bourdain's kitchen
[521 - 523] confidential which is also available to download or
[523 - 525] which is also available to download or stream anywhere on your device via
[525 - 526] audible as you can imagine between
[526 - 527] working as a full-time chef
[528 - 530] and making videos i pretty much have no
[530 - 531] free time but
[531 - 533] audible makes it simple and easy to use
[533 - 535] passive time like driving or washing the
[536 - 538] dishes to enjoy the extremely well-written pros
[538 - 539] to enjoy the extremely well-written pros of gabrielle hamilton she did her own
[539 - 541] narration for this book and i really
[541 - 543] love that i love her style so much
[543 - 544] if you want to give audible a try go to
[544 - 547] audible.com weeds and sardines or text
[547 - 549] weeds and sardines to 500-500 and your
[549 - 550] first month is free
[550 - 551] and whether you want to learn something
[551 - 554] new or go for a well-deserved diversion
[554 - 555] audible has you covered again
[555 - 558] audible.com wheezing sardines or
[558 - 560] tex weeds and sardines to 500-500 thanks
[561 - 563] audible after 45 minutes in the oven this big
[563 - 565] after 45 minutes in the oven this big ziti looks absolutely amazing it's
[565 - 567] caramelized around the edges it's got
[567 - 568] some of those crispy noodles and it just
[569 - 571] smells so sick now you can let this cool for a
[571 - 573] so sick now you can let this cool for a few minutes top it with some ricotta and
[573 - 575] some reserved meat sauce and eat it
[575 - 577] right now you'll be very happy but the
[577 - 579] real way to do this is to grab a second
[579 - 581] brownie pan set that right on top
[581 - 582] put a couple pounds of weight in there
[582 - 584] i've got two 20 ounce cans of tomatoes
[584 - 586] and now i'm going to cool this to room
[586 - 587] temperature and then let it press
[587 - 589] and set up in the fridge overnight now
[590 - 592] the next day this zidi is fully set into
[593 - 594] psychotic final product the noodles have
[594 - 596] absorbed all of that meaty sauce and the
[597 - 599] is ready for our pleasure now i'm gonna
[599 - 600] cut this into four
[600 - 603] entree big dog size pieces that way
[603 - 604] everyone gets a nice
[604 - 607] large hard cooked brown corner piece and
[607 - 608] look at this reveal
[608 - 610] all the noodles are lined up my god look
[610 - 612] at this okay to finish this thing i'm
[612 - 613] going to set this piece of ziti on a
[613 - 615] wire rack on a little baby sheet tray
[615 - 617] and bake in a 425 degree oven to get
[617 - 619] this thing all the way heated through
[619 - 621] after 10 minutes or so in the oven we're
[621 - 623] hot and now we're going to finish this
[623 - 624] like chicken parm
[624 - 626] i'm going to top this ziti with a combo
[626 - 627] of shredded mozzarella
[627 - 629] chopped fresh mozzarella and grated
[629 - 631] parmesan it's about equal parts of all
[632 - 633] three there's about a half cup of cheese on
[633 - 635] there's about a half cup of cheese on top and then under the broiler it's
[635 - 637] we're gonna try this for about 20
[637 - 639] seconds rotate the ziti and then char
[639 - 640] for about another 20 seconds and
[640 - 644] after that we've got a hot toasty cheesy
[644 - 645] baked ziti fit for
[645 - 646] anyone whether you're going through a
[646 - 648] hard time and you need to be comforted
[648 - 650] or it's saturday night and you just want
[650 - 652] to have some fun big ziti
[652 - 654] is a perfect meal the finishing touches
[654 - 656] here are some additional meat sauce make
[656 - 657] sure you get about a half cup of that
[657 - 660] a huge dollop of that fresh milky sweet
[661 - 663] ricotta and i'm looking at some crunchy toasty
[663 - 665] and i'm looking at some crunchy toasty caramelized pasta corners here
[665 - 688] i am so stoked let's eat this thing huh
[688 - 689] huh before i get out of here if you uh
[689 - 691] support this channel on kofi thank you
[691 - 693] guys so much it goes directly into developing
[693 - 695] so much it goes directly into developing these videos if you like this video
[695 - 696] please give it a like and
[696 - 697] as always guys thank you so much for
[697 - 699] your time and attention thank you for
[699 - 700] sticking around
[700 - 703] we'll see you next time