This baked ziti with Italian meat sauce is one of my favorite baked ziti recipes! It’s rich and hearty, and the sauce has a beautifully robust flavor that makes it so delicious. It’s super easy to prepare and uses mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano as a melty cheese!
Baked ziti is a very nostalgic childhood dish for me. It’s something my mom made a lot for us as we were kids and something she still makes a lot to this day! Her recipes were always simple, and she used what she had on hand. Whether it was random cheeses from the fridge or canned tomatoes with any pasta shape. No matter what, it was always made with a lot of love, and I always think of it as a dish my mom made.
For this recipe, I wanted to keep it simple but use my Italian meat sauce as the base, which has a beautiful, robust flavor and sets this recipe over the top. When I made this for my dad one night, he could not stop talking about how delicious it was.
I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!
Ingredients Needed
Pasta – Baked ziti, of course, requires pasta and is traditionally known as “maccheroni di zita,” which is a tube-shaped pasta. I personally don’t have ziti available at my local grocery store, so I like to use mini rigatoni (also known as Mezze Maniche). But really, you can use any shape of pasta!
Italian meat sauce – the sauce for this recipe is my Italian meat sauce, made of ground beef, Italian sausage, and red wine with tomatoes. You can, of course, replace it with a marinara, but the meat sauce adds incredibly rich flavor!
Cheese – for melty cheese, we’ll use freshly grated mozzarella and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano for salty flavor. Typical baked ziti also includes ricotta, which you can add, but I personally didn’t grow up with ricotta in baked ziti, so I didn’t include it in this.
How to Make it
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1
Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and cook the pasta until “al dente” in texture. Before draining the pasta, reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water then drain the rest.
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2
Prep the pasta. Add the drain pasta back to the pot you cooked in it, then add half the Parmigiano Reggiano and Mozzarella, and 3 cups of sauce.
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3
Fold the pasta with the sauce and cheese. Gently fold the sauce and the cheese together with 1/4 cup of pasta water (more if needed to loosen up the ingredients and add moisture).
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4
Prepare the baked ziti. In a 9×13 dish, lightly grease the bottom with olive oil, then add the pasta and top with 2 to 2 1/2 cups of meat sauce. Spread it over top of the pasta.
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5
Top with cheese. Then top the baked ziti with the remaining Parmigiano and Mozzarella.
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6
Bake. Cover the baked ziti with foil and bake at 350F for 25 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve!
Mix up the cheese. You can also add 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese in addition to this recipe. Or the cheeses in this recipe for cheddar cheese, gruyere, provolone, and asiago or pecorino instead of parm.
Add herbs. I always add to herbs to every baked pasta dish, but I didn’t feel like this recipe was lacking without them. However, fresh herbs are always welcome! You can add 3 Tablespoons of chopped fresh basil for a pop of herbed flavor.
Different pasta shapes for baked ziti. Instead of using ziti noodles, I like to use different shapes like smaller rigatoni (mezze maniche), radiatore, small shells, or any pasta shape you like! The more texture the pasta shape, the more easily it can catch all the cheese and sauce.
Tips for Success
Cook the pasta “al dente” when baking it – this is important because the pasta will be cooked again in the oven, cooking it al dente will ensure it holds its shape while it bakes and also won’t fall apart when everything is being mixed.
Use fresh cheese and finely shred it – Using fresh cheese (not pre-shredded) will get the best tasting results and melt better in a baked ziti. I’ve also found finely shredding the cheese helps the cheese melt better and better encorperates into the baked ziti. I’ve also found Parmigiano Reggiano melts better when finely shredded.
Always save a little pasta water – just incase the pasta needs moisture or to make it creamier, I always save 1/2 cup of pasta water. This will loosen up the dish and also hydrate the pasta if needed!
What to Serve it With
We love to serve baked ziti with a nice salad such as our apple walnut salad, Greek chickpea salad, or our artichoke salad! You can also serve it with some rosemary garlic bread.
Meat Sauce Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 7 oz Parmigiano Reggiano, finely shredded
- 8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1 lb dry pasta, along with ziti you can use rigatoni, mezze maniche, penne, or radiatore.
- 5 1/2 to 6 cups Italian meat sauce
- 1/2 cup pasta water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and stir in the dry pasta. Cook until al dente according to the package.
- Drain the pasta. Save 1/2 cup of pasta water, then drain the pasta once it's cooked.
- Mix the pasta with some sauce and cheese. Add the pasta back to the pot, add half of the mozzarella, and half of the parmigiano with 3 cups of sauce and 1/2 cup of pasta water. Fold everything together, being gentle to not break the pasta as you mix everything together.
- Add to a baking dish. In a 9×13 baking dish, add the pasta, then top with the remaining sauce and cheese.
- Bake. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 25 minutes covered then remove the foil and bake the remaining 10 minutes uncovered. If you'd like to brown the cheese, you can broil the top on high for 30 seconds. Then remove from the oven and serve!
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