BAKED ZITI WITH ITALIAN RICOTTA MEATBALLS

Well it turns out I completely underestimated my husband’s love for the meatball! We ate this for dinner, he took leftovers to work for his lunch and we ate it again, for dinner. Yep, it's that good and now it's all gone — GONE — in two days.  BAKED ZITI WITH ITALIAN RICOTTA MEATBALLS 1/2 onion, minced 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 pound ground beef 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese 1/4 cup packed chopped Italian parsley 1 egg, beaten 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black Coarse ground black pepper 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste 1/3 cup dry bread crumbs 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 (24 ounce) Hunt's Four Cheese Pasta Sauce (Estelle's preference) 1 carton mushrooms 8 ounces of ziti Parmesan cheese Mozzarella cheese 2 cups cottage cheese 1 egg, beaten 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese 1 T. Italian seasoning salt and pepper

	Sauté onion in 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir garlic into onion and turn off heat. Transfer onion mixture to a large mixing bowl.
	Stir ground beef, ricotta cheese, parsley, egg, kosher salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper with onion mixture until almost combined; stir in bread crumbs and continue to mix until thoroughly blended.
	Roll about 2 tablespoons of mixture into a 1-inch ball for each meatball. Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil in same skillet used to cook onions. Place skillet over medium heat and brown meatballs on all sides in hot oil, about 5 minutes. Remove meatballs to a serving platter. Now, in the same skillet saute the mushrooms until tender. Pour the pasta sauce over the mushrooms and continue to simmer.   While this simmers, boil your ziti. Drain and set aside.  In a mixing bowl, combine cottage cheese with egg, seasonings and Parmesan cheese. Mix well.  In a baking dish, layer some pasta sauce in the bottom of the dish. Cover with the layer of cottage cheese. Top with ziti. Then arrange the ricotta meatballs over the top of the ziti and pour the remaining sauce/mushroom mixture over all. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes.