Baked Ziti

Ziti pasta baked with delicious red meat sauce and lots of cheesy goodness. The perfect meal for busy weeknights, potlucks, and parties! Save well as leftovers!

5 from 4 votes

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 50

Total Time: 1

Servings: people

Calories: 538kcal

Author: MinShien

Ingredients

Red sauce

1 1/2 tbsp garlic minced
1 tsp olive oil
1.5 lbs lean ground beef
28 oz crushed tomatoes
15 oz tomato sauce
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Cheese filling/layer(s)

15 oz ricotta cheese
1 lbs mozzarella shredded
1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated

Others

1 lbs ziti pasta or penne
basil optional
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Add olive oil to a large pot (See Note 1), heat up under medium heat, then add minced garlic to pot. Cook for 15 seconds or so, then add ground beef.
Cook ground beef until it is almost done, then add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, dried basil, oregano, marjoram, and sugar. Stir and bring to a boil, then add salt and pepper to taste. Bring heat to low, and cook for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat.
While red sauce is cooking, fill a smaller pot with water, add a pinch of salt, and bring to boil, then add ziti pasta and cook a minute less than the instructed cook time (typically anywhere between 8-11 minutes). Drain water when done (See Note 2).
While pasta is cooking, bring ricotta cheese, 1/2 lbs of shredded mozzarella, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese to a medium bowl and mix well. Set aside the remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese for later.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
When pasta and red sauce are done, bring drained pasta to sauce and toss to combine.
In a 9" x 13" casserole dish, add 1/2 of the pasta and red sauce to the bottom layer, then spread all the cheese filling to the next layer, then add the rest of the pasta and red sauce. Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese (set side on step 4) to the top.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove and let it cool for 10 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Note 1: Use a large pot because eventually we will be adding cooked pasta to this pot to combine the red sauce with the pasta.

Note 2: After draining the water, add some olive oil to pasta and toss around to prevent pasta from sticking to each other. Do this especially if pasta will sit for a while before being added to the red sauce.

Nutrition

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