Baked Ziti
This Baked Ziti recipe is super easy because it uses store bought spaghetti sauce. This is one of my family's favorite dishes and I can pull it together in a flash on a busy weeknight.
If you are great at food-prepping, you can always brown the meat and onions ahead of time and refrigerate the meat until you are ready to use.
This pairs well with a side salad and garlic bread. It is also great leftover for lunch the next day.
This dish is a crowd-pleaser and a super fast way to serve a large group. It makes a great addition to any potluck meal and disappears quickly!
Ingredients
1 lb Italian sausage
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion chopped
1 small can tomato paste
3 (regular size) jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
A pinch of red pepper flakes
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup mozzarella, shredded
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 lb ziti noodles
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Cook ziti as directed on the box, minus about 2 minutes. These will continue to cook in the oven, so you don’t want them overcooked in the water. Drain off the excess liquid and set aside.
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In a large skillet, brown the sausage and beef and add the onion. Continue cooking until the onions are translucent.
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Add the tomato paste and stir until it is fully incorporated with no lumps.
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Add the salt, pepper, and sugar and stir.
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Add two jars of the sauce and allow this to cook on medium for about ten minutes. Remove from the heat.
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Combine the ziti and sauce and stir well.
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Prepare a large casserole dish or baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
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Begin layering in this order: ziti mixture, a little extra sauce from jar 3, a little of all three cheeses, repeat until everything has been added to the casserole dish, making sure you have enough cheese to go on top.
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Bake on 350 degrees until it is bubbly and the cheese is melted and slightly browned.
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Allow it to rest for about ten minutes or so before serving.
NOTE: You may not need to use all of the third jar of sauce, this is really depending on how thick the sauce is that you are using. I used about 2 ½ jars of Ragu Garden Style for the dish in this picture. Once the leftovers are refrigerated, the noodles have a tendency to soak up all the extra liquid, so I use the remaining sauce to go on top of the leftovers when they are reheated. Also, the sugar balances the acid in the tomatoes, so don't leave it out.