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Baked Ziti

Ziti boiled two minutes short, tossed in a beef and sausage tomato sauce, layered with seasoned ricotta and baked under mozzarella until browned and bubbling.

Prep
20 min
Cook
1 hr 15 min
Rest
10 min
Makes
Serves 8
Jump to the recipe
Baked pasta with melted cheese in a white dish
Photo: Mohammad Fahim / Pexels

Baked ziti goes wrong in one of two directions. Either it comes out dry, the pasta stiff and the edges crunchy, or it comes out soft, the ziti bloated and falling apart. Both have the same cause: the pasta keeps cooking and keeps drinking sauce in the oven, and the recipe did not plan for it.

The pasta should come out of the boiling water two minutes before the package says it is done. It will look underdone and feel firm in the center, which is what you want. In the oven it finishes cooking in the sauce, absorbing liquid and flavor at the same time. Cook it fully first and by the time the cheese browns it has gone soft.

Then the sauce needs to be looser than you would serve on a plate of spaghetti. Some of that liquid is meant for the pasta. A sauce that looks almost too thin when you toss it with the ziti is the one that bakes into a dish that is saucy all the way through. A thick sauce at the start means a dry bake at the end, which is why this recipe holds back a cup of sauce to spoon over the top layer.

The sauce is built on a mix of ground beef and Italian sausage. Beef gives body, and sausage brings fennel, garlic and pepper, which saves a long list of spices. Brown the meat well; the browned bits are flavor. Then onion, garlic, a little tomato paste cooked until it darkens, crushed tomatoes and a pinch of sugar to round off the acidity. Twenty minutes of simmering is enough.

The ricotta layer is what makes baked ziti different from a plain pasta bake. Whole-milk ricotta mixed with an egg, Parmesan, garlic and parsley sets slightly in the oven into soft, creamy pockets instead of melting away. The egg is the reason it holds together; without it the ricotta is looser and spreads into the sauce.

Assemble in layers rather than stirring everything together: half the pasta, dollops of ricotta, mozzarella, then the rest of the pasta, the reserved sauce and more mozzarella on top. Bake covered first so the pasta steams and finishes cooking, then uncovered so the top browns. Let it rest ten minutes before cutting, or it slumps on the plate.

For a faster Italian-American dinner, creamy sausage pasta cooks in one skillet. Lasagna soup has the same ricotta topping in a bowl, and crockpot tortellini lets the slow cooker do the work.

A bowl of dried rigatoni beside small bowls of spices
Photo: MART PRODUCTION / Pexels

Baked ziti, ready to print

Ziti boiled two minutes short, tossed in a beef and sausage tomato sauce, layered with seasoned ricotta and baked under mozzarella until browned and bubbling.

Meat sauce, pasta and the ricotta layer

For the meat sauce

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ lb (225 g) ground beef
  • ½ lb (225 g) Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 can (28 oz / 794 g) crushed tomatoes
  • 1 can (15 oz / 425 g) tomato sauce
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp fine salt, plus more to taste
  • ½ tsp black pepper

For the pasta and ricotta layer

  • 1 lb (450 g) ziti or penne
  • 15 oz (425 g) whole-milk ricotta
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup (50 g) Parmesan, finely grated, divided
  • 1 clove garlic, finely grated
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
  • 3 cups (340 g) low-moisture mozzarella, shredded, divided

Undercook, sauce loosely, layer, bake

  1. 1 Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the beef and sausage and cook, breaking them up, until browned, 7–8 minutes. Drain off all but 1 tbsp fat.
  2. 2 Add the onion and cook until soft, 4 minutes, then the garlic for 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste and cook until it darkens, 1–2 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring now and then.
  3. 3 Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the ziti 2 minutes less than the package directions. Drain.
  4. 4 In a bowl, mix the ricotta, egg, ¼ cup (25 g) of the Parmesan, the grated garlic and parsley.
  5. 5 Set aside 1 cup (240 ml) of the sauce. Toss the drained pasta with the rest of the sauce.
  6. 6 Spread half the pasta in a 9×13 in (23×33 cm) baking dish. Dollop the ricotta mixture over it in spoonfuls and scatter 1 cup (115 g) of the mozzarella on top. Add the remaining pasta, spoon the reserved sauce over it, and finish with the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
  7. 7 Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 20–25 minutes more, until the cheese is browned in spots and the sauce bubbles at the edges.
  8. 8 Rest 10 minutes before serving.

Making it ahead, freezing and meatless

  • Make ahead: assemble, cover and refrigerate up to 2 days. Bake covered for 35 minutes, then uncovered for 20.
  • Freezing: freeze the assembled, unbaked ziti for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake as above.
  • Meatless: skip the meat and add 8 oz (225 g) sautéed mushrooms and a handful of spinach to the sauce.
  • Jarred sauce: use two 24 oz (680 g) jars of marinara simmered with the browned meat for 10 minutes.
  • Leftovers: refrigerate up to 4 days. Reheat covered at 350°F (180°C) with a splash of water so the pasta does not dry out.

Dry ziti, precooking pasta and lasagna

The pasta absorbed the sauce in the oven. Use a looser sauce than you think you need, keep some sauce back for the top, and bake covered for the first half.

Yes, but 2 minutes short of the package time. It finishes cooking in the sauce in the oven and stays firm instead of going soft.

They use the same sauce and cheeses. Lasagna layers flat sheets of pasta; baked ziti uses short tubes, mixed with sauce and layered loosely, which makes it faster to assemble.

Yes. Use 1 extra cup (115 g) of mozzarella between the layers, or replace the ricotta with cottage cheese blended smooth.