Slow Cooker Baked Ziti Pasta Recipe

As I was looking through a new slow cooker recipe book I won a while back from OrgJunkie I saw a recipe for baked ziti.  It reminded me that I once made a crockpot ziti pasta. Here’s my variation on several slow cooker ziti pasta recipes.

Ingredients
1 box penne pasta
1 pound Italian sausage
1 tsp oregano
1 and 1/4 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme
3/4 tsp garlic powder*
1 TBS minced onion
32 oz tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce
1/2 pound grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated romano cheese or 1 cup riccotta cheese
3/4 cup parmesan cheese

Directions
Mix seasonings together in small bowl then stir into sauce
Mix cheeses together in separate small bowl
Rinse pasta
Layer in crockpot:  1/3 Italian sausage, then 1/3 sauce, then 1/3 rinsed pasta, then 1/3 cheeses.
Repeat 2x
Cook on low about 4 hours.  It’s very important to not open the slow cooker while cooking as it releases moisture &heat, and adds about 30 mins cook time.
Top with a bit of extra mozzarella and parmesan and allow to melt before serving.

*When I fixed this the first time, the recipes I looked at all called for garlic cloves.  We don’t keep garlic cloves but being kitchen illiterate as I am I found some cloves in the seasonings and used those instead.  Yeah- that didn’t work out so well!  😉

Next time I cook it I’ll try to remember to snap a picture.