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Baked Ziti
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Want an easy weeknight dinner? Warm, comforting, and amazing, this is an easy-to-make classic Baked Ziti has no business being this good! It’s filled with Italian Sausage, tomato sauce, and ooey gooey cheese to the max! This recipe is especially indulgent with a side of Homemade Garlic Bread and a side salad for good measure.
Ingredient Notes + Variations
This baked ziti gets its depth from a few layers of flavor: savory sausage, aromatic garlic and onion, and a tomato sauce that simmers down to just the right consistency. Fresh mozzarella melts into little pockets of cheesy goodness, and the final sprinkle of shredded mozzarella gives you that golden, bubbly top everyone fights over.
- Ziti Pasta – Classic, sturdy, and perfect for catching sauce. You can sub with penne if needed.
- Sweet Italian Sausage – Adds flavor and richness. Use spicy if you want a little kick.
- Marinara Sauce – I used Rao’s because it’s thick and flavorful right out of the jar. Any quality jarred or homemade sauce will work. I then added more tomatoes and seasonings to make a semi-homemade sauce.
How to Make Baked Ziti
This baked ziti doesn’t require fancy steps or extra pots. You’ll cook the pasta, make a quick sausage-based sauce, mix it all together, and bake. Easy enough for a weeknight, but it tastes like you worked all afternoon. For full details, including ingredients and measurements, see the printable recipe card down below.
Step 1: Preheat Oven + Prep Pan
Preheat your oven to 350° F and grease a 9×13 baking dish. Set it aside.
Step 2: Boil the Pasta
Cook ziti pasta to al dente
Step 3: Brown the Meat
brown sausage + add olive oil, onion, garlic + sauté
Step 4: Make the Sauce
stir in tomatoes, sauce, water + seasonings- cover and simmer
Step 5: Combine with Pasta + Cheese
add ziti noodles to the meat sauce
add mozzarella + parmesan, stir to melt
Step 6: Assemble + Bake
pour into pan, sprinkle with mozzarella + cover with foil
bake until hot + bubbly, top with parsley
What to Serve with Baked Ziti
Here are a few side dish ideas to round out your baked ziti meal.
- Homemade Garlic Bread – Because ziti + garlic bread = carb heaven.
- Caprese Salad with Balsamic Dressing – absolute freshness to balance the richness.
- Simple Roasted Asparagus– Keeps things green and easy.
- Strawberry Spinach Salad – Sweet and savory… and totally unexpected with baked pasta.
- See my list of 25 amazing ideas for Best Sides for Baked Ziti
This baked ziti is hearty, reliable, and honestly hard to mess up. Just the way a comfort classic should be. comfort food to the max! Enjoy, friends! 🙂
Baked Ziti with Sausage
Warm and comforting this is an easy-to-make classic Baked Ziti recipe filled with Italian Sausage, tomato sauce and cheese to the max!
Ingredients
- 1 lb ziti pasta
- 1.25 lbs Sweet Italian Sausage
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 25 oz marinara sauce I used Rao's
- 14.5 oz petite diced tomatoes
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese drained and cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 cup part skim mozzarella cheese shredded
- parsley fresh, chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish and set aside.
- Bring large pot of water to a rolling boil. Salt generously and cook ziti according to package directions for al dente. Drain and set aside.
- In a deep skillet with high sides, over medium-high heat, brown the sausage, breaking apart as it cooks. Drain grease if desired.
- To the cooked sausage, add olive oil, onion, and garlic and saute until mostly tender, about 3 minutes.
- Stir in diced tomatoes, marinara sauce, water, basil, oregano, bay leaves, salt, and black pepper. Stir well. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Taste sauce and adjust seasonings if needed. Remove bay leaves.
- Add cooked ziti to sauce and stir to coat. Add in fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Stir to melt slightly.
- Pour into baking dish and sprinkle with 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover with lightly greased foil and bake for 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbling.
- Top with fresh chopped parsley (optional) and serve hot.
Notes
Storing Baked Ziti
Allow to cool to room temperature before storing leftovers. Baked Ziti will last in the fridge, in an airtight container, for 4-5 days! Which means it’s great for leftovers and meal prep. Alternatively you can make a double batch and freeze one portion for later! To Reheat baked ziti: You can either do this a couple of ways. Reheat individual portions in the microwave until heated through. The other way is to reheat in the oven. Preheat oven to 350° F. Allow baked ziti to sit on the counter while the oven preheats (so your casserole dish doesn’t crack from extreme heat variations). Cover the top with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes until heated through.How to Freeze Baked Ziti
One of the best parts about Baked Ziti is that it can be frozen to last even longer and make a super easy dinner for the future, I love when that happens! Simply double the recipe, bake one portion, and with the other store in a freezable container before baking (those aluminum casserole dishes found at the grocery store would work great for this). Be sure to cover tightly with aluminium foil and then plastic wrap before freezing. Freeze for up to 3 months. To bake after freezing: Thaw in the fridge overnight then bake as according to the recipe directions.Nutrition
Calories: 665kcalCarbohydrates: 54gProtein: 31gFat: 36gSaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 87mgSodium: 1370mgPotassium: 817mgFiber: 5gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 785IUVitamin C: 14mgCalcium: 356mgIron: 4mg
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Baked Ziti Variations
Everyone has their secret tips and tricks in making Baked Ziti their own and in this house, I encourage it! Feel free to use my recipe as a base then customize to your liking. Here are a couple of options to get you started:
- Vegetarian Baked Ziti: feel free to make this a vegetarian meal by leaving out any meat products and then supplementing with more veggies!
- Adding Vegetables: you can absolutely use/hide vegetables in this dish. Consider wilting spinach, adding shredded zucchini, or shredded carrots to this dish! Or serve your vegetables on the side.
- Using Different Meat: although I use a pork Italian sausage for this baked ziti recipe, you can absolutely replace it with ground beef or ground turkey.
More Comforting Pasta Recipes to Try!
- Classic Stuffed Shells– Jumbo pasta shells filled with creamy cottage cheese and baked in marinara until bubbly and golden.
- Spaghetti and Meatballs– Tender homemade meatballs simmered in sauce and served over perfectly cooked spaghetti.
- Baked Rigatoni Pasta– A hearty twist on lasagna with layers of rigatoni, ground turkey meat sauce, and melted cheese in every bite.
- Chicken Alfredo Stuffed Shells– Stuffed shells get a creamy upgrade with shredded chicken, alfredo sauce, and melty mozzarella.
- Best Homemade Lasagna– A tried-and-true lasagna recipe with rich meat sauce, creamy béchamel, and lots of cheese.
Delicious!! Tastes like something I’d pay for in a restaurant. I did add more Parmesan to the recipe because I like it cheesy!
Great recipe! Tastes like mom used to make. I used chopped sweet sausage meat.
Delicious, and easy. I’ve made several times.
This was excellent. I made it for our church group and received numerous compliments! The fresh mozzarella was a great ingredient in this recipe. I have always used the shredded. Not anymore! Thank you!
Recipe looks decent, however I bailed due to the incessant pop up ads on the site. The “jump to recipe” button is great – however it is the highway to pop up videos and several ads – so many that I am having a hard time even leaving this review. Do better.
Excellent! My family loved it and easy to make.
Just made how do i post a picture
Can you make this ahead and bake it the next day?
Did you ever figure out if you can make everything ahead of time, refrigerate, then bake later in the day?
Hi Lauren! If I love tomato flavor but not chunks of tomatoes, what can I use instead of diced? Sauce? Or can that just be omitted since there’s already marinara??
This recipe looks really good & easy to make the only question I have is do I have to use maniera sauce in order to make it or can I use any kind of sauce that I have?
Hi Dawn, definitely use whatever you have on hand. Homemade would be amazing!
Cooked this for the first time tonight for dinner! Really enjoyed making it! I used hamburger meat instead of sausage and it turned out very delicious! My husband and I really enjoyed it! Very good flavor and taste!
Literally the best baked ziti recipe! My toddlers are super picky when it comes to food. Even they enjoyed it & asked for seconds!
Did you use fresh diced tomatoes or a can of diced tomatoes?
a can of diced tomatoes
I chose this recipe to make baked Ziti for first time for daughters birthday dinner and it turned out delicious!!
Best ever!
Sooooo delicious!! Family loved it! Best ziti yet! Thanks
Can you give instructions on cooking in crockpot
I had so much joy making this for our family today. It smells amazing and tastes delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Delicious! Definitely use Rao’s, Lucky me, I had a jar I bought on clearance.
Love this recipe! Very easy and delicious!
Love this recipe. I cannot believe you used Rao’s we just got it here at Costco in Canada. Have bought and used it and it is good. I read up on it and all about it’s beginning’s. Will now get a reservation there when this virus is all over and we are able to visit the U.S. again. Thank you for this amazing recipe.