Baked Ziti

This baked ziti recipe is the real deal – it’s the Italian-American classic that you know and love and crave, crave, CRAVE! And guess what? It’s easy to make and feeds a crowd.

Baked ziti didn’t come to us from Italy even if most of the ingredients did. Instead, it’s an Italian-American creation. I don’t know how or why it was first made but it seems quite similar in flavor and ingredients to lasagna, except it’s a bit easier to make because you don’t do as much layering. It is only a guess that lasagna was the original inspiration for ziti, but certainly, if you love lasagna you’ll love this.

How To Make Baked Ziti

It’s really easy. What you do is to cook up some ziti noodles according to the package directions. While they cook, you mix some cheeses (mozzarella and Parmesan) with ricotta, egg, parsley, and seasoning. (I’ve seen recipes online for baked ziti that call for sour cream instead of ricotta. I haven’t tried it. But if you dislike ricotta, that would be a good substitution to try).

Once the pasta is cooked, you drain it and then mix it with that cheese mixture. This makes sure that every noodle in your dish has some delicious cheese coating it. You’re going to add some tomato sauce to this mixture too. This keeps it nice and moist. What kind of sauce? Hang on. Info coming up! First, get out your casserole dish. You’ll need a nice big one. I use a deep dish lasagna pan like this one.

Put some sauce into the bottom of the pan. You can use a basic tomato sauce, store-bought from a can or a basic homemade tomato sauce like this. If you use a tomato sauce, it will be a vegetarian dish. If you want it meaty, you can use a meat sauce or spaghetti sauce instead. Here’s my basic spaghetti sauce recipe, which works great here. As a general guide, what you’ll need is 2 pounds of ground meat (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, or a combination) cooked and then mixed with 4 cups of tomato sauce.

Once you’ve added sauce to the pan, you add half of your ricotta-coated pasta, a layer of sauce, and a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese. Then another layer of pasta, sauce, and cheese.

Pop it into a 375ºF oven uncovered until heated through and bubbling, about 30 minutes (it will take longer if you started with cold pasta).

Make-Ahead Ziti

There are three options for making this ahead.

1. You can cook the noodles ahead of time. Refrigerate them and then assemble when you’re ready to bake it. If doing this, you can either refrigerate the noodles plain or you can toss them with the ricotta mixture before refrigerating. Noodle Tip: If you’re leaving the noodles plain in the fridge stop them from sticking together by tossing them with a tablespoon or two of olive oil or vegetable oil.
2. Instead of baking it immediately, you can assemble it, cover it, and then put it into the fridge for up to 3 days. Bake it straight from the fridge. It will take about an hour. See the note about baking below.
3. You can assemble it, seal it well in plastic wrap, and then freeze it for up to a month. Let it defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before baking. If you’re going to freeze the ziti, you’re best to use a disposable baking dish like this. I like them because they have good tight-fitting lids.

And if you love baked pasta recipes, you’ll want to give my amazing Stuffed Shells recipe a try. The shells are filled with ground beef and ricotta and it’s really delicious. Enjoy!

Podcast Episode: Making Baked Ziti

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This post originally appeared in January 2017 and was revised and republished in November 2021.