My favorite cooking magazine is Cooks Illustrated. Some of the recipes are a little too complicated to attempt on a weeknight, but they do try to publish several fast or easy dishes each issue. The March/April 2009 issue included a baked ziti recipe that I have adapted for busy cooks.

This looks big and complicated, but truly it's very easy and much can be done in advance. And most everything is likely to be in your pantry or fridge.

I futzed with the original quite a bit, but the two things you shouldn't mess with are the white sauce (a must-do step) and using cubes of mozzarella rather than shredded cheese. In fact, using cubes is more important than using mozzarella. When I made it, I didn't have a block of mozzarella on hand so I used one of those speckled blocks of Colby-Jack cheese and that worked fine too.

And when it comes to the Parmesan, fresh is great but if all you have is the green can so be it.

Ingredients list:
Dairy: Cottage cheese, 1/2-pound block of mozzarella cheese, eggs, cream or whole milk.
Pantry: Ziti or other tubes, Parmesan, big can (28-oz) tomato sauce, medium can (14.5-oz) diced tomatoes, cornstarch, olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, basil, sugar, salt, pepper.

Pasta (can be boiled in advance)
What you need:
1 pound ziti

What you do: Cook pasta in salted boiling water until it's just starting to get soft, about 5-7 minutes (about half the time the box says), rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Tomato sauce (can be simmered in advance, start while water for pasta is heating)
What you need:
28-oz canned tomato sauce
14.5-oz canned diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

What you do: Mix all of the ingredients except the sugar, salt, and pepper in a pot and bring to a simmer. Cook about 10 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat and add the sugar, salt, and pepper.

Cheese mixture (can be mixed in advance while pasta and sauce are cooking)
What you need:
1 pound cottage cheese - not ricotta, not fat-free
2 eggs
1 cup Parmesan cheese, divided (use only 1 cup here and the other during assembly, below)

What you do: Beat the eggs in medium bowl, add the cottage cheese and 1 cup Parmesan and stir with a whisk.

At this point you can set everything you've made aside and come back to it later, or you can continue with the white sauce and assembly and put it in the oven or fridge. (I haven't tried freezing it.)

White sauce (make this just before you assemble it)
What you need:
1 cup cream or whole milk
3/4 tsp cornstarch (use 2 tsp if using whole milk)

What you do: In a small bowl, mix milk/cream and cornstarch then transfer to a big pot (you can use the one you used to boil the pasta). Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until thickened, about 3-4 minutes for cream or 4-6 minutes for milk.

Assembly (can do in advance and refrigerate)
What you need: All the stuff you made above, plus
8 oz cubed low-moisture mozzarella - do not use shredded cheese
And the extra 1/2 cup of Parmesan noted above

What you do: In the big pot with the hot white sauce, add the cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce, and half the cubed cheese and stir to combine. Then add the pasta and stir to coat. Transfer all this to a 13x9 dish coated with cooking spray, spread evenly, then sprinkle with the rest of the cubed and Parmesan cheeses. Cover tightly with foil.

Bake (start 1 1/4 hours before you want to eat, or 13/4 hours if the dish is cold from the fridge)
What you need: A 350-degree oven

What you do: Bake covered for 30 minutes. If starting cold, put in oven while it's preheating and increase time to 50 minutes. Remove foil and cook until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown, about 20-30 minutes more. Let it sit on the counter for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Nancy writes once a month about food for TriangleMom2Mom. Looking for more recipes? Go to www.trianglemom2mom.com/eat and check back here every Wednesday.