Today we celebrate – it’s my blogiversary! One year ago, I decided to take a chance and share doing something I love with the masses and so far it has been such an awesome experience. I just wanted to thank everyone for their love and support, without it I wouldn’t have gotten this far. I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Ok, now thats out the way, lets talk about this new recipe!

 It’s hard to live life without a little pasta. Especially when you bake it, add bacon and lots of cheese 😊. Coming up with this recipe was so much fun and delicious. This is an obvious combination anyone would enjoy. This recipe is perfect for the family and uses basic items you have in your fridge and pantry right now. I’m a visual learner, so I’m going to hit you all with a lot of process pictures so you’ll be able to see the entire dish come together. This is such a simple dish that comes together in less than 60 mins and tastes like it’s been cooking for hours. Let’s get started!

The Sauce

To elevate your basic marinara sauce you gotta add some additional ingredients to brighten up the sauce. Adding some ingredients like fresh chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, and thyme will really take a your marinara from simple to amazing! Throw in a a few dried herbs and it’ll taste like your marinara sauce was made from scratch!

To add more texture and flavor to the sauce, you want to add some ground meat of your choice (for this recipe I picked ground sausage, but ground beef or turkey will work just fine) and of course bacon! Bacon is the secret ingredient to this sauce…shhhhhhh :). It really helps to deepen the sauce and bring the flavors together.

In a large pot add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and start to cook your bacon until it’s nice and crispy. Once that’s done, remove the bacon and add ground sausage and cook until browned, breaking up large pieces as it cooks. Once cooked throughout, remove and set aside and add in the chopped onion and garlic. Cook until onions begin to become translucent. Then, you will add in the diced tomato and the marinara sauce of your choice. I always, always use Trader Joe’s Tuscano Marinara Sauce simply because the ingredients are straight to the point and it has no additives. It’s just a great kitchen hack and I make sure to keep a couple of cans at home at all times. (And no, Trader Joe’s isn’t paying me to say that lol, I wish. I just love Trader Joe’s!) Return the bacon and cooked sausage to the sauce and stir to mix. Add in bay leaves, dried oregano, dried basil, chopped thyme and a little salt and pepper to taste. Once everything is in the pot, cover and let those flavors marry. This is a sauce that you can let go for hours; the longer the better, but 30 mins usually does it if you don’t have a lot of time on hand. Thats the great part about using this marinara sauce, you save time without sacrificing flavor.

While the sauce is building, cook pasta according to packaging. You want to cook your pasta al dente so it still has a bite to it and can hold the sauce. Also, at this point you want to pre-heat your oven to 375F.

Time To Build The Ziti

Once your sauce is done, add in cooked ziti pasta or any short pasta you have on hand (bowtie, rigatoni, etc). Give it a good stir to combine with the sauce. At this point you, will add in one cup of shredded muenster cheese and one cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. Mixing the cheese into the pasta creates little pockets of cheesy heaven throughout the dish – just another secret to getting that cheesy goodness in every bite! I picked these two cheeses because they have the best “pull” when you dig in and their flavors aren’t over powering. Mix throughly and transfer to a baking dish.

Now cover the top of the dish with 1 cup of shredded muenster cheese and 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and top with some dried oregano. I like to add a little extra virgin olive oil before it goes into the oven, it really helps keep the cheese from burning and drying out while in the oven. I’m giving away so many of my secrets in this recipe lol, I hope you guys give them all a try. You won’t regret it, I promise!

Pop into the oven uncovered for about 20 mins or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

The Reveal!

Let’s take a moment to appreciate this beautiful dish full of cheesy, meaty pasta goodness! Adding the extra virgin olive oil before baking really keeps the cheese smooth and moist.

Serve Immediately! 

No need to wait for this to cool down. You want to get maximum pull right before serving to impress all your guests, or yourself, if you don’t intend on sharing lol.

Serve with grated or shaved parmesan and enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by, if you try a recipe, drop a comment! I’d love to hear about!

*On Pinterest? Click Picture Below To Pin*

See how easy that was?!? Until next time, cook like a king!