As I was browsing through some of my favorite blogs, I came across this recipe for Baked Rigatoni from Marie’s Proud Italian Cook’s blog. This recipe is so easy, and so delicious, its hard to believe its so easy! And so versatile. You can add some grilled chicken, ground beef or sausage or peppers, zucchini, or anything you like.
I added shaved Parmesan cheese, but you can add anything you have on hand.
I make it with my Marinara sauce, but you can use jarred sauce if you like as well. I added some variegated Basil fresh from the garden. This is just comfort cooking at its best!
Baked Ziti with Ricotta
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 lb ziti, rigatoni, or other pasta
- Marinara Sauce
- 1 lb. ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped; or 1 Tbsp dried
- bunch of spinach, squeezed and drained of all liquid
- 1/3 c. or so grated cheese (Romano or Parmesan)
- Salt & Pepper
- Mozzarella cheese, grated
- Fresh shaved Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Boil pasta in a large stock according to package directions.
- While pasta is cooking, combine ricotta, egg, parsley, spinach, cheese, salt & pepper together. Place in a zipper bag and snip off one of the bottom corners.
- Drain ziti, and add sauce to pasta.
- In a 13″ X 9″ pan, spread sauce on the bottom. Add one third of the ziti, and dollop the ricotta mixture all around on top of the ziti (space about 2″ apart). Then add, Parmesan and Mozzarella. Layer one more time exactly the same. Place the remaining third of ziti on top and top with Mozzarella if you choose.
- Cover with foil, and bake 30 minutes. Uncover foil, and bake 15 minutes more.
Notes
You can omit the spinach from the ricotta if desired. I did not use it in my recipe, but it entirely up to you.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
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