Delicious Baked Ziti Recipe | SO Easy!

Hey I’m John Cannell and today we’re making a cheesy delicious baked ziti so let’s get started.

Quick Prep

First off grab an onion we’re gonna give it a good chop this dish has almost no prep work so really we’re just gonna chop the onion and mince some garlic up really fast. In the meantime you should also have grabbed a big skillet and a large pot should be at the ready. We’re going to do a couple things at the same time so this dish comes together pretty quick.

My mom’s from Mexico but she used to make baked ziti all the time when I was little. It is one of those really easy weeknight meals that you can make that feeds the whole family. It’s just totally delicious and you have all these comforting cheesy tomato meat vibes that just make for a good dinner.

You have a couple minutes of grace before the onion hits your eyes so chop quickly. My recipe calls for six cloves of garlic; I’m using eight—that’s how it works. Give them a smash. I think we all know that there is like an internal garlic multiplier we use at home, so you read a recipe you’re like, “Hmm, four cloves of garlic? I’ll get ten.”

One of the reasons I love this dish is it gives you tons of lasagna vibes without all the work. You get that tomato, the meat, a lot of flavor, the cheese, but there’s no layering involved. It’s like it comes together so quickly. This is also one of those dishes that reheats really well, so you can make it the night before and then have leftovers happily.

Start the Sauce

Now in a large skillet we’re gonna heat two to three tablespoons of oil right up. Get that oil nice and hot. You always want to see a nice shimmer—a play of light on the oil—before you add anything in. Shimmer achieved; I’m adding my onion right into the pan. We’re just going to give this a little bit of a mix. Grab a wooden spoon; we’re just going to mix this up. We want things to be translucent and beautiful, not burnt. This has a lot of cooking to do yet, so you don’t want to singe anything. If your cooktop’s running hot, turn it down a little bit. It should be about five minutes until these become almost translucent.

That looks just about right—becoming translucent. Now I’m going to add one pound of ground Italian sausage in. If you want, you could definitely use ground beef, ground pork, chicken, turkey—anything’s gonna work in this. It is like an easy variable recipe. Break it up with your spoon. I’m also gonna add the garlic right into the pan. I’m using my wooden spoon just to keep breaking everything up. I want this to be pretty uniformly browned, get some flavor on there.

This is taking on some nice color. You want to make sure you don’t see any pink bits. I want to cook all the meat right now just to be safe. What I’m using today is a pretty balanced Italian sausage, but you could use like a real spicy one if you want to inject some more flavor in there. Really you could take this recipe wherever you want.

This is nice and browned up—all the pink is gone—so now we’re gonna add our marinara sauce in here. Use a nice marinara sauce if you can—something with a lot of flavor. If you want to make your own, go right on ahead. Along with the marinara I’m adding about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning. Red-pepper flakes—it’s your choice. I’m using just like a quarter teaspoon; I like a little bit more spice. I’m also adding a can of whole peeled tomatoes in. You could use crushed tomatoes if you wanted. We’re also going to add a little bit of salt and some freshly cracked ground pepper to taste. The marinara sauces that you use all have different amounts of salt in them, so that’s why we’re going to add the salt to taste.

Reduce heat to medium-low and we’re gonna let this simmer for about half an hour to really thicken up and let those flavors meld together in an amazing combination.

Cook the Pasta

While that sauce is simmering we’re gonna set our oven to 350 °F and grab a casserole dish so we’re ready to assemble. It’s time to grab a pot—enough to boil one pound of ziti—fill it up with water and get some salt too. Always salt your water well; nobody wants bland pasta. It’s about a teaspoon per quart, so I added a little bit over a tablespoon in mine.

That means it’s time to add our pasta. Baked ziti of course has ziti pasta, but you could use penne, rigatoni—a lot of these larger pastas will work just fine in here. While my pasta is cooking I’m just gonna grate my Parmesan cheese. This stuff is so good, and you could definitely use the pre-grated stuff, but I just think it’s better freshly grated. I want about two-thirds of a cup.

My pasta is at al dente; you definitely want it to have some bite—it’s gonna continue cooking with that oven time. Okay, we’re ready to add the pasta back into our pot and we’re working quick because we don’t want the pasta to start sticking. I’m gonna add about two cups of the sauce right into my pasta—stir it so the pasta is really well coated.

Assemble & Bake

Spoon some of the sauce right onto the bottom of your casserole dish—just enough to cover the bottom so pasta doesn’t stick. Add half of the pasta into your casserole dish; spread it into an even layer. Spoon half of the remaining sauce over the pasta. Now we’re gonna grab half of our Parmesan cheese—sprinkle it all over. I’m gonna dot about half a cup or so of this nice beautiful ricotta on top. I’m also going to add about two cups of mozzarella right now—that’s half of our mozzarella.

More pasta—spread that out. We’re going to add the remaining sauce right over here, add the remaining Parmesan, more ricotta dotted over the top. Last up, our mozzarella. Just adding a final blessing of some Parmesan cheese over the top, and this is ready to go into the oven—350 °F for about 40 minutes or until it’s bubbling and ready to enjoy.

Ready to Serve

Out of the oven it’s bubbling away. It smells so good—cheesy tomato deliciousness. That is so good. I mean I love every bit of it, but my favorite—the star—is the cheese in this. It really just wraps everything together in a delicious hug. I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.