Baked Ziti is a great family meal to bring to the table with 3 kinds of cheese, a hearty meat sauce and a cheesy browned top!
Here’s a relatively easy-baked ziti for the weekend with lots of helpings to go around. It has three types of cheeses, a couple of very beefy meaty layers and a golden brown cheesy top. What more could you ask for? Well, maaaybe some extra Parmesan cheese on top.
You can follow this recipe to the tee or simplify it with fewer ingredients. It all depends on how much work you feel like putting in and how picky you are about flavor! It takes its flavor cues from my slow cooker beef and cheese pasta, with added beef bouillon cubes and Worcestershire sauce for extra beefy flavor and a bit of sugar to balance out the tartness of marinara sauce. It’s been really popular for family meals and with the kids so this should work just as well!
This will be the second time I’ve attempted baked ziti. The first time a year or so ago gave me this soggy mess of noodles which lead to me refining my technique with pasta bakes in general and this recipe. So one year later and lotsa baked pasta experiences later (chicken Alfredo pasta bake!), I’m trying it again.
BAKED ZITI TIPS AND TRICKS
No more soggy pasta this time. I took several precautions. I did end up cooking the pasta until al dente but rinsed it under cold water to stop the cooking process. I figured it’ll cook more in the oven leading to that dreaded soggy pasta so putting a stop to the cooking whenever possible helps. It’s the same reason we’ll be baking it uncovered, so the contents don’t steam while baking.
Your beef layer on top will get slightly crisp and crunchy because it’s not covered but I actually liked the added texture of it. Yummy ricotta, cheesy strings of mozzarella, chewy noodles, mmm beefy beef and oh, there’s some crunchy beef too! It worked out well.
Since all of the stuff was pre-cooked before baking, the baking part is just to cook up that egg you added to the ricotta mixture. Thirty minutes or so is fine. Then you top the pasta bake with more mozzarella cheese and broil it for a couple of minutes until browned.
And that’s about it. Happy cooking!
Simplify it: Leave out the onions and garlic and just use ground beef. Leave out the Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, beef bouillon cubes for a basic marinara sauce.
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Baked Ziti
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
Baked Ziti is a great family meal to bring to the table with 3 kinds of cheese, a hearty meat sauce and a cheesy browned top!
Ingredients
- 16 oz. ziti, cooked al dente
- 2 lb. ground beef
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 1 jar (24 oz.) marinara sauce
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 beef bouillon cubes
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 15 oz. ricotta cheese
- 2 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente. Rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.
- Over medium-high heat, brown the beef until cooked through. Drain any excess fat.
- Remove beef and set aside. Saute onions and garlic until onions are soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add in beef, marinara sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, bouillon cubes, sugar and salt and pepper to taste.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine eggs, ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
- Add the pasta to the cheese mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined.
- Spoon 1/3 of the meat sauce into a 9×13 casserole dish.
- Top with half the pasta mixture.
- Repeat layers once more and finish with a final layer of meat sauce.
- Bake uncoevered for 30 minutes at 350°F.
- Sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
- Broil at 450 degrees F for 3-5 minutes or until cheese has browned.
- Dish and serve hot.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
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22 Comments
Mindy
July 8, 2018 at 11:10 AMI would love to try this but we do not like cottage or ricotta cheese is there something I could substitute with or could I just leave it out?
The Cooking Jar
July 9, 2018 at 1:47 AMYou could try leaving out the eggs and ricotta cheese although it will end up just being pasta with regular cheese in the layers. Or you could mix up the pasta with the meat sauce and some cheese then top with a final layer of cheese for the melty top. I used to hate ricotta too but then I realized there’s a huge difference between store brand and a good brand in terms of flavor and texture. I found Galbani ricotta to be really good and haven’t had a problem with ricotta since.
Jane
February 12, 2017 at 10:39 AMI sometimes do things like this, only simpler. The same with cheese, it is important to choose the right kind of cheese, it gives a lot of their flavor.
★★★★★
Leslie
March 24, 2016 at 9:01 AMI love mild sausage in my ziti, so do you think I could go with a lb each of the ground beef and sausage? Would I need to adjust the recipe at all? Thank you!!!
The Cooking Jar
March 29, 2016 at 4:54 PMAbsolutely! In fact, that’s how I made my Italian meatballs recipe. Half Italian sausage and half ground beef. There’s no need to adjust anything except subbing the ground beef for sausage pound for pound. Just brown the beef with the Italian sausage.
Francesca
July 10, 2018 at 6:12 PMI made this with half Italian sausage and should have decreased the salt a bit maybe by removing 1 boullion cube because sausage is saltier than beef. Otherwise it was great!
Jess
March 19, 2016 at 7:35 PMJust ran into your site while perusing Pinterest. Your recipe looks so delish my meal plan has changed! I’m curious about the onion and garlic.. I generally cook mine right in with the beef, but is there something a rookie like myself doesn’t know? I feel that the lazy in me will battle this at times, although I am doing as you suggest this time..
Can’t wait to see how it turns out, thank you!
The Cooking Jar
March 20, 2016 at 6:02 PMWell to be honest, it’s something I was brought up to do but I never questioned the why. I just knew it made everything taste better. So I did a little researching after you asked the question (and it’s a good question!). I found a pretty good article from Food Lab over at Serious Eats, one of the sites I trust to know their stuff. It’s a pretty good read and it explains it down to the chemical process! But long story short (TL:DR), sauteeing the onions and garlic in oil instead of adding it with everything gives you a fuller flavor overall. It’s a good thing and well worth the extra time! Also, I cook the beef separate because fat tends to render from ground beef after it’s cooked and it makes it easier to spoon away and remove the rendered fat from just the beef rather than beef and chunks of garlic and onion.
Julie
October 2, 2015 at 7:44 AMIt looks so good and delicious. I love beef and I really want to try it. It will be listed in my new dish menu, thanks.
The Cooking Jar
October 2, 2015 at 11:31 PMGood luck with the cooking and I hope you enjoy the flavors, Julie.
Melissa @ Oil Diffuser
July 6, 2015 at 5:37 PMI tried first time, and ended up messing the whole dish, (just like the blogger) and next time too, the noodles were over cooked. I got it right after fifth trial, and now I love this lovely dish.
The Cooking Jar
July 7, 2015 at 8:16 PMI’m sorry you had to try it a couple of times before getting it the way you like it, Melissa. Good baked ziti is tricky, isn’t it? Especially if you don’t like soggy pasta. But I’m glad you worked it out and kept on trying. Congrats!
Calie
May 31, 2015 at 9:44 AMIt looks so good and delicious. I love beef and I really want to try it. It will be listed in my new dish menu, thanks.
★★★★★
The Cooking Jar
June 1, 2015 at 2:46 PMThanks, Calie! Good luck trying it out and I hope you enjoy it 🙂
Carolyne
April 26, 2015 at 8:33 PMLooks delicious! Do you think you could make it and Leave it in the fridge Overnight?
The Cooking Jar
April 27, 2015 at 4:05 PMI don’t see why not, Carolyne! Happy cooking! 🙂
Thao @ In Good Flavor
March 12, 2015 at 3:21 PMThis is a great looking baked ziti. I love all the wonderful brown bits on top. Yum!
The Cooking Jar
March 16, 2015 at 5:08 PMOh yeah, I didn’t plan for it but it worked out quite well. Love crunchy bits!
Dorothy Dunton
March 11, 2015 at 4:46 PMHi Farah! You are seriously “cheesy” lately and I love it!! I’m gaining weight just looking at this dish, but that won’t stop me from chowing down! Do you have “cheese” stock? 🙂
The Cooking Jar
March 16, 2015 at 5:07 PMI’m totally working on patenting my home-made cheese stock! 😉
Karen K
March 11, 2015 at 1:00 PMThis looks good, but i would sub sliced, sauteed mushrooms for the beef. Do you think I should still add the beef bouillon cubes? I’m not vegetarian; I just prefer mushrooms over ground beef in most recipes. Thanks.
The Cooking Jar
March 11, 2015 at 2:33 PMYou can skip the beef bouillon cubes when you’re going for mushrooms. I usually add that and Worcestershire sauce to beef up the flavor a little but mushrooms work better with a nice smoky flavor. Maybe some smoked paprika?