Baked Ziti Recipe
This baked ziti recipe is hearty, cheesy, and packed with rich Italian flavor. Ziti pasta is mixed with a delicious sauce containing Italian sausage and ground beef, then topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese and baked to bubbly perfection.
Servings: 16 Servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound Ziti (or penne or rigatoni)
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 onion (finely diced)
- 24 ounces marinara sauce
- 14 ounces crushed tomatoes
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 3 cups Mozzarella cheese (12 ounces)
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius).
- Cook ziti pasta in salted water according to the package instructions until al dente. Drain, do not rinse.
- While the pasta is cooking, cook the sausage, ground beef, minced garlic and onion in a large pot or skillet over medium-high heat. Stir often and break up the meat as you go, until the meat is no longer pink and it begins to lightly brown.
- Add marinara sauce, crushed tomatoes, heavy cream, Italian seasoning, sea salt and pepper and stir to combine.
- Add the cooked ziti pasta to the sauce and stir to combine.
- Then, spread the noodle/sauce mixture evenly into a 9x13” baking dish.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella then parmesan cheese over the top of the ziti.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cheese just barely begins to brown.
- Remove from oven, let sit for 5 minutes before serving warm.
Video
Notes
Ingredient Substitution Notes
- Ziti Pasta. Ziti noodles are smooth, tube-shaped pasta that are slightly longer and wider than penne. Any tubular noodles work well such as penne, and rigatoni.
- Ground beef. Use 85% lean ground beef for the best results.
- Italian sausage. choose your favorite, mild, spicy, etc.
- Marinara sauce. choose your favorite variety, or make your own homemade marinara sauce.
- Crushed tomatoes. I prefer crushed to diced because I believe it gives the dish a better texture. If you only have diced tomatoes, pulse them in a blender for 2-5 seconds.
- Heavy cream. half and half and whole milk are good substitutes.