Updated on April 25th, 2019
Outside of stuffed shells, I have not tried a lot of different baked pasted dishes. I decided to give baked ziti a try and it was a huge success. There are so many recipes for baked ziti out there but this one is so simple and delicious, I see no need to try any other! The greatest flavors of this dish come from parmesan cheese and garlic. You can use any type of spaghetti sauce you want, store bought or even some of your own homemade. I love garlic so I added a few more cloves than the recipe called for. If you cannot find ziti pasta, rigatoni will work as well. Serving with garlic bread is a must. If you are looking for a fantastic Italian recipe, give this one a try. Enjoy.
(Makes 6 Servings)
PrintBaked Ziti Recipe
Ingredients
Scale
- 1lb ground beef
- 1 cup onion (chopped)
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 (32 ounces) jar meatless spaghetti sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 (16 oz) package ziti pasta (cooked and drained)
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet add ground beef, onions, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat stirring frequently until the beef is browned.
- Stir in spaghetti sauce, chicken broth and oregano. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in 1 cup of sauce into the cooked ziti noodles. Spoon Ā½ of the ziti mixture into a 13×9ā baking dish. - Sprinkle 1 Ā½ cups mozzarella cheese and Ā½ cup parmesan cheese over the top of the ziti mixture. Top with 2 cups of the sauce, then add remaining ziti mixture and top that with the remaining sauce.
- Ā Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes remove from oven, uncover and sprinkle the top with the remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
- Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted.
That really looks tasty! What are the green leaves that you used to garnish it with? I can’t tell from the picture.
Something I like to do is mix in pepperoni and spinach with rigatoni and then top with cheese. I agree, the garlic bread is a must!
Chelle- it is actually home grown fresh basil. The plant was very young so that is why the leaves are so small.
I love meals like this, pasta , sauce and cheese, oh how I love the melting cheese!
Cheesy baked pasta goodness!
Had some friends over and made this for dinner the other night. It was a big hit. Thanks for posting.
I made this last night and it turned out great! Also tasted great as leftovers today š
I made this tonight and it was DELICIOUS! My whole family enjoyed it. It wasn’t dry at all.
After we gobbled it all up my husband suggested adding basil– I have a huge plant, so I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it! Anyway, thanks for the recipe.
Is it OK to use Rigatoni pasta instead of ziti? My lame local store doesn’t carry ziti, if you believe it.
TJ – Yes it is fine to use rigatoni
OK, this turned out most excellent! Thanks again for a great recipe. Always looking to try new ones!
This looks excellent. My friends do pot luck dinners a lot and I usually make something like this. Easy and it feeds a lot of people easily. I usually throw down a layer of sour cream in the middle somewhere. Adds a very creamy goodness and people can’t figure out what it is!
We made this tonight and it turned out so good. I was really surprised b/c usually pasta, canned sauce, with some cheese turns out pretty bland. This was very savory and I wonder if it was b/c the chicken broth. I think that definitely added something to it. I also added a little bit of basil to the mix and sprinkled some fresh cut up basil on top. Turned out really yummy!
I made this recipe tonight and it was delicious! I subsituted pork instead of the ground beef, which turned out great as well
This was one of the first things I cooked when I first started off learning to cook, and it truly has become a staple. I follow it to a T, and I’ve made this so many times and it never gets old! I LOVE this! Thanks so much for this recipe š