Baked Ziti

By LETSEAT

Ingredients

• 1 pound ziti (can sub penne) pasta
• Olive oil
• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage or ground beef or pork
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (or basil), minced
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 large jar of marinara sauce (about 32 ounces) or make your own tomato sauce
• 1/2 pound of mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 heaping cup of ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

Details

Servings 8
Cooking time 55mins
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

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Now here's a classic midweek meal, or a hot dish to bring to a potluck. Baked ziti is a lot like American lasagna, but easier to make; it has practically the same ingredients but you don't have to fuss with lots of layers or broken noodles. This recipe is a pretty basic version, but everyone who makes baked ziti has their own unique tricks and twists to it. Some vary the cheeses, some the meat, some make meatless versions, and some people leave out the tomato sauce for a truly cheese-tastic casserole.

This version uses bulk Italian sausage, as well as a key fresh herb. In summer, that would be basil. In winter, rosemary. You could also easily use savory, sage, thyme or parsley. Ziti is a pretty common pasta shape in most areas, but you can substitute penne pasta if you can't find it. You want a substantial short pasta shape with places to hold the sauce and meat. You can make this ahead, and either refrigerate or freeze before you do the final baking.

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1 large jar of marinara sauce (about 32 ounces) or make your own

Bring a large pot of water to a strong boil. Add about a tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water. Add the pasta and boil, uncovered, until the pasta is al dente—edible but still a little firm. Drain the pasta through a colander. Toss with a little olive oil so the pasta does not stick together while you make the sauce.

Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil into a large sauté pan on medium-high to heat. When the oil is hot, add the bulk sausage or ground meat. Do not crowd the pan (work in batches if needed). Break up any large chunks of sausage as it cooks. Brown well. Don't stir that often or it will be more difficult for the meat to brown. If you are using ground beef or pork instead of sausage, add a little salt.

When the meat is mostly browned, add the onions and stir well to combine. Sauté everything until the onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic, rosemary or basil, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Cook 1 minute, then add the tomato sauce and stir well. Bring to a simmer.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13-inch casserole pan, then dot the surface with half the ricotta cheese. Ladle in some sauce with the pasta, mix it well and add the pasta into the casserole.

Pour the rest of the sauce over the pasta, dot the remaining ricotta cheese over the pasta, and sprinkle on top both the mozzarella and the Parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven until the top is nicely browned, about 20 minutes.

Ahh, yes! The baked ziti. This was a popular meal for friends to bring whenever I had one of my 3 children. A great meal, easy to throw together and the leftovers reheat fantastically. I'm interested in your souped up version, though. Looks to be much more flavorful than the one I make. Hello red pepper flakes! Guess I know what's going on next week's menu planning! Thanks for posting this recipe!

Much like April's post - this is one of my go to dishes for taking to a new mom. Almost everyone likes it, good calcium (I make it with extra ricotta), no long strings of spaghetti, makes a ton, freezes, reheats, etc. I prefer penne because it's thicker and has the great ridges.

I love this dish, it's real comfort food. I add veg's to mine while cooking the onions. I've added chopped zucchini, or peas, or Romano beans (called Italian beans sometimes), chopped spinach. This is one of those good, flexible casseroles where you can get a little creative.

I would put the frozen casserole into a cold oven and heat up the oven and then cook until it is heated through and the cheese is melted. ~Elise

For some odd reason, I made my first pan of ziti only 2 years ago at the request of my, then, 17 year old daughter. I don't even know that I had eaten it before! And I LOVE Italian food. Anyway, since then, it's become pretty much the family favorite. My recipe is only very slightly different from yours. I mix sour cream into the ricotta and add a layer of provolone cheese slices. For assembling, I mix half the sauce with all of the pasta. Then, half pasta into dish, all of the ricotta, all the provolone, the rest of the pasta, then the other half of the sauce. Top with mozzarella and some parmesan. Bake, eat, yum.

I love Making Ziti bakes. An aquaintance of ours loves to hunt deer during the season and we all usually end up with more venison than we can handle. I usually get mine like ground beef and use it in everything. The venison version comes out great. I let the meat soak in milk over night though, to kill some of the wild flavor, and use plenty of cheese, with italian seasonings. I also add chopped green hot pepers to the sauce. Here we likes our food spicy!

This sounds wonderful! I love ricotta. The ziti I normally make uses bechamel sauce, which is also divine!

This looks wonderful. It would be great to make enough for two casseroles - one to eat and one to freeze for later. A perfect dish to have on hand during these busy holiday evenings.

Baked ziti is one of my favorite comfort foods. Perfect for the holidays. Gotta love a no-fuss meal you can make ahead and throw in the oven. I'll be making this soon- with brown rice penne. Thanks for reminding me of this classic dish!

This is one of our favorites! I make this at least twice a month in two batches...one we eat and one we freeze to take to our son and his family later in the week. I omit the red pepper flakes and add some grated cheddar along with the Italian cheeses. I only use ground beef for the meat, and I always have plenty of basil (fresh frozen) for the sauce. Even my 16 month old granddaughter loves this dish! :)

Well, I went through with my plans to make this recipe for dinner. Although it was quick and easy, something did not go right. It turned out a bit dry and the ricotta cheese was exactly where I "dotted" it. Was I suppose to spread it around? Also, with the exception of the sauce, I doubled everything (maybe that is where I went wrong). Either way, it tasted great. I served it with a side salad of iceberg lettuce and garlic rolls. My husband gobbled it up. My son, the picky eater that he is, would not go near it.

The only changes made were 1) no fresh herb added and 2) penne pasta was used instead of ziti.

For you vegetarians out there who want more protein....I added a 12 oz. package of soy chorizo (sp?) that I bought from Trader Joes. I have seen them in Super Walmart now. My daughters ate it up!

I made this a second time and added some sliced cremeni mushrooms to your tomato sauce recipe a little before the carrots and onions were cooked and then added the garlic once the mushrooms cooked down a bit. I still haven't added celery to the sauce and it has been good without it and doesn't seem like it's missing anything when celery isn't included.

I also added a little more red pepper flakes and only 1 tsp of the Italian seasoning since I was using Italian sausage with lots of flavor already. I love it and it's a great easy dish that gives us a few meals to eat on during the week. Thank you for sharing!

Made this on Christmas Day and had enough leftovers for an army, which I can now report froze nicely in ziplock bags and reheated to near perfection in the microwave. There is nothing like home-made fast food!

Anyone have suggestions for what to replace ricotta with for a dairy intolerant child?

Great recipe. Used Johnsonville sweet italian sausage. Add 1/2 tbs fennel really gives it that italian flavor. Use Zia's pasta sauce. People from St. Louis and the hill know what I am talking about. Family loved it.

So, when I tried your recipe last week, I replaced the pasta with penne and mixed ground beef with chunks of the Spanish chorizo sausage, which added some spice. I also put some fresh red peppers in it. I loved it! Thank you so much - I will definitely prepare it again.

This recipe struck me as a grown up version of something my Canadian mother used to make, she called it 'beeferoni'. I think there was a song involved - 'hooray for beeferoni' it went. Anyway, this was divine and 'baked ziti' sounds much more sophisticated than beeferoni.

I started my sauce with a soffrito of celery, onion and carrot, and later added mushrooms to boost the vege content. Also served with steamed broccoli on the side. The ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan topping was the star of the show.

Made this tonight and it was a hit!! Next time, I am going to add an extra layer of cheeses between meat sauce and noodles. Definitely doing it again.

Yes you can freeze this a couple of weeks ahead of time, probably even a couple of months. I would cook first, then freeze, then reheat when you wanted to eat it. ~Elise

Thank you so much for this recipe! This dish is just fantastic. The only changes I made were to use ground turkey, whole wheat penne pasta, and to add some green and yellow bell peppers with the onion. I also added a little extra red pepper flakes since my husband and I love spicy food. I look forward to trying more new recipes from you!

This was just delicious. I make several italian type dishes but this was really yummy, especially the next day when I took leftovers to work! I used a 13.25oz box of Dreamfield pasta and 4 mild turkey italian sausages, left out the red pepper flakes and shredded a small zucchini. Other than that, I followed the directions exactly. thanks for the great recipe!

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