By The Community Food Bank reached out to another food bank. In Tulsa — the Tulsa Community Action Project. They want to replicate our cooking class model. My model. The recipes, the curriculum, the instructor training, the recipe cards. They want to build the same program in their service area, using our template. Carol asked if I'd help them set up. I said yes (the pattern). I'll train their staff, share the curriculum, and hand over the recipe binder that I've been building for three years — eighty-four recipes, each one tested, costed, and designed for families who have a stove, a pan, and a prayer.
The replication means: more families. Not my families — someone else's families, in someone else's kitchens, making my recipes with their own hands. The food travels. The food doesn't need me to carry it. The food carries itself, from my kitchen to the food bank to the bookstore to a different food bank in a different part of the city. The math of it — one girl's recipes, multiplied by 1,000 families, now multiplying again — is bigger than any number on my Amazon dashboard. The math is: impact. And impact doesn't fit on a receipt.
I made my chicken and rice bake for dinner tonight. $3.47. The same recipe. The same cost (adjusted for inflation — it's actually $3.89 now, but I round down because I refuse to accept that the chicken and rice bake has crossed the $3.50 barrier). Brayden ate two helpings. Harper ate one helping and critiqued the seasoning ("A little more garlic next time, Mama" — she's six and she has seasoning notes). Wyatt ate sweet potato. Dustin ate three helpings and said it was good. The table is full. The kitchen is enough. The food travels, and the traveling is the whole point, and the point has always been: feed people. All of them. One kitchen at a time.
The chicken and rice bake is already in our regular rotation — it’s in the binder, it’s in Tulsa now, it’s traveling — but tonight I wanted something that felt like a celebration of what this day meant, a full table, a loud table, a table that needed more than one pan. This fire roasted ziti is exactly that: big enough for second helpings, simple enough for a weeknight, and the kind of meal that makes everyone sit down and stay a little longer.
Fire Roasted Ziti With Sausage
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 12 oz ziti pasta
- 1 lb Italian sausage (mild or hot), casings removed
- 1 can (14.5 oz) fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 can (15 oz) crushed tomatoes
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp fresh basil or flat-leaf parsley, chopped (for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
- Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook ziti 2 minutes less than package directions (it will finish cooking in the oven). Drain and set aside.
- Brown the sausage. Heat olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking it apart with a spoon, until browned and cooked through, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat if needed.
- Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to the sausage and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add fire roasted tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Combine. Remove sauce from heat. Stir in the drained ziti until fully coated. Fold in ricotta and 3/4 cup of the mozzarella.
- Assemble and top. Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish. Spread evenly. Scatter remaining 3/4 cup mozzarella and Parmesan evenly over the top.
- Bake. Bake uncovered for 20–25 minutes, until cheese is melted, bubbly, and lightly golden at the edges.
- Rest and serve. Let the ziti rest 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh basil or parsley.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 520 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 52g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 780mg