Oven Baked Pasta

I found this recipe on the blog My Kitchen Cafe. I changed a few things to make it more enjoyable for my family. (I added ground beef and used more cheese.) The family loved it and a few of them even got up to get seconds. That's always a plus!

Oven Baked Pasta (Originally Baked Ziti)
by My Kitchen Cafe adapted from Cook's Illustrated

1 lb ground meat
16 oz cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 lb pasta (preferably ziti or penne; I used bowtie since it's all I had)
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely minced (about 5 teaspoons)
1 (28-oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-oz) can crushed tomatoes (my kids don't like chunks!)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil (if fresh is used, add it to the sauce at the end after it's taken off the heat)
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream (if you substitute it with whole milk, increase the cornstarch to 2 teaspoons and the cooking time by 1 to 2 minutes)
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated or cut into 1/4-inch cubes (my family likes cheese so I added more)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, brown the ground meat; remove meat from pan. In a medium bowl, whisk the cottage cheese, eggs and 1 cup of the parmesan cheese together; set aside. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot over high heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through (the pasta will finish cooking in the oven.) Drain pasta and leave in colander. Do not wash the pot.

While the pasta is cooking, heat oil and garlic, in the skillet used to brown the meat, over medium heat until the garlic is fragrant but not browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, basil and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Take it off the heat (this is where you would add the fresh basil) and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the browned ground meat.

Stir cornstarch into heavy cream and transfer mixture to the now empty pasta pot. Set the pot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pot from heat and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce mixture, and 3/4 cup mozzarella, then stir to combine. Add pasta and stir to coat thoroughly with sauce.

Transfer mixture to a 9x13-inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheeses over the top. Cover the baking dish with foil that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to cook until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes. Serve.