Baked Ziti is a perfect meal when you are entertaining. It’s easy to prepare and makes a large amount of food whether you add meat or keep it vegetarian.
Jump to RecipeBaked Ziti is a perfect meal when you are entertaining. It’s easy to prepare and makes a large amount of food whether you add meat or keep it vegetarian. For our little family, we usually have leftovers for days out of one batch of baked ziti.
I love anything with sauce and cheese, so this is one of my favorite meals. You can also freeze leftovers for another time, or even double the recipe to have some frozen for a quick meal. If you do freeze it, reheat your leftovers in a pot with a little extra sauce to keep it from drying out.
Baked Ziti can be made with or without meat. I generally don’t care for meat in my pasta, so I leave it out. Most of the time, sausage is the meat of choice to add to ziti. If you want to do that, brown the sausage and mix it in with the noodles and sauce before layering the dish.
We like to buy large blocks of cheese and shred it ourselves. Sometimes I do only what I need for a meal. Other times I shred it all and add a bit of cornstarch to keep it from clumping together. My favorite side is homemade bread to dip in the sauce and cheese.
Baked Ziti Step by Step
Ingredients
- 3 cups ziti noodles (uncooked)
- 3 cups spaghetti sauce
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350F. Boil the pasta noodles for 8 minutes, until they are al dente. They will cook a bit more in the oven, so you don’t want them to get too soft right now.
After the noodles have cooked, drain them and return to the pot. Stir in the pasta sauce to cover the noodles.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, half of the mozzarella cheese, basil, and pepper.
Spoon half of the noodle mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.
Spread the entire cheese mixture on top of the noodles. Carefully spread it out to try to cover most of the noodles.
Add another layer with the remaining noodles and sauce.
Top the noodles with the last half of the mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese. Cover loosely with foil and bake for about 25 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes to let the cheese brown slightly.
Recipe
Originally Published On: March 23, 2017
Last Updated On: May 11, 2021
Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 3 cups ziti noodles (uncooked)
- 3 cups spaghetti sauce
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 2 cups mozarella cheese (shredded)
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Boil pasta for 8 minutes and drain
- Stir the spaghetti sauce in with the cooked noodles
- In medium bowl stir together ricotta cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and seasonings
- In a 9×13 baking dish, spoon 1/2 pasta mixture
- Spread cheese mixture on top
- Layer with remaining pasta
- Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese
- Cover loosely with foil
- Bake 25 minutes
- Remove foil and bake 5 minutes or until hot and bubbly
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutrition content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
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More Recipes with Ricotta Cheese
- Four Cheese Spinach Pasta
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- Crispy Fried Mozzarella Cakes Recipe with Fresh Cheese
- Mozzarella-Stuffed Meatloaf
- Super Easy Pizza Dip
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- Homemade Pizza Burgers: The Best Combo of Two Recipes
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Baked ziti is a family favorite here! Your dish looks amazing, will definitely give it a try!!
We love it, too. It makes great leftovers as well since it reheats nicely.
So yours is a vegetarian version? Interesting! I always do baked ziti with hamburger mixed in. Have you ever tried it with, say, cannellini mixed in? Then it would have some protein and I could serve it when my vegetarian friend comes to visit us!
I don’t usually care for meat in meals like this, so I make it vegetarian. I’ve never heard fo cannellini before, I’ll have to look it up!
I have a teenage son, so I wouldn’t know what leftovers are. Lol. Baked ziti is one of my favorites. Love this recipe!
Hah, I’m not there yet but I’m sure I’ll know the struggle one day when my boys are that age!
Yum! I made something similar for my kids and a neighbor stopped – they all loved it. Your recipe sounds delicious, gonna save to pinterest.
Baked ziti makes so much, it’s perfect when you have others over, whether it’s planned or not!
My husband loves the “pasta al forno” and I have never tried with Ziti before! It sounds and looks delicious!
Ziti is about the only way I’ve had this meal! It works really well with everything, hopefully he enjoys this method, too!
I love cheese too so this would be a great dish for me. Not tried ziti before so that would be a nice change.
This is about the only meal I use ziti noodles in, but they work really well for the recipe.
I have never tried baked Ziti before this. But it looks like a delicious dish. I think if I make this my family would surely love it.
Baked ziti is a great meal for the family because it makes a lot so everyone has plenty of food. And if you don’t eat it all it reheats really well.
Looks like an easy meal to make. I like that there are several options to make it different.
I usually make it only this way, since I know my whole family enjoys it, but yes, lots of options for changing it up to your preferences.
I grew up with baked ziti but my husband did not. When I made it for the first time, he called it “pasta with extra dishes”. Now it is one of his favorites!
That’s so interesting! We had baked ziti a lot since my mom is a very picky eater but always liked this one.
This is one of my favorite things that my mom makes. I love that I can tweak it to keep it vegetarian. The leftovers are always the best part.
It would be very easy to change just a few things in this and make it the way you prefer.
Andrew and I were just talking about wanting to try to make baked ziti becuase we both love it! I am totally sending him your recipe!
Oh wow, this is perfect timing then! It’s such an easy recipe to put together and the leftovers heat up really well.
I haven’t tried Baked Ziti before. The recipe looks super delicious, the best part is that you can prepare it in different versions. I’ll give it a try
We used to make it a lot when my oldest was younger because he would just devour it! You can easily change a few things to make the recipe your own.
My family loves baked ziti. Just as you mentioned we buy our cheese in blocks and shred it ourselves. You always have great tips!
I find that the cheese tastes fresher and melts better when you shred your own so it works so great for a meal like this. I’m glad I’m not the only one!
I didn’t know cornstarch kept cheese from clumping. Good tip. I love baked ziti.
Yes! You just need a little bit otherwise the cheese gets chalky. But it lets you shred it a day or two in advance if you need to.
I also like anything with sauce and cheese. This Baked Ziti looks delicious. Good recipe!
Sauce and cheese are amazing!! I hope you enjoy the meal when you get a chance to make it.
This looks so delicious! Baked ziti is a family favorite, I can’t wait to make this recipe again…YUM!!!
It’s a winner here, too, and one of the meals that we often go back to. Especially when we are having people over since it makes so much.
This looks like good honest comfort food. I love the fact that it is also easy to make too xx
You’ve got it, this is ultimate comfort food!
Ooooo yum!!!! I just love pasta dishes!!!! Definitely something everyone in the fam can agree is delicious. Must try this ziti recipe
That’s one of the reasons I make it, we all agree on this one and will eat it!