Easy Baked Ziti

Easy Baked Ziti

A perfect potluck pasta dish!

Prep: 10 min Cook: 1 hr
Serves: 10 Save

Ingredients (16)

Sauce

  • 3 T Olive Oil
  • 2 Garlic Cloves
  • 56 oz Canned Crushed Tomatoes
  • ¾ tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Sugar
  • 1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Pasta

  • ¼ oz Cooking Spray
  • 1½ lb Ziti Pasta
  • or 1½ lb Penne Pasta
  • or 1½ lb Medium Pasta Shells
  • or 1½ lb Rigatoni
  • 30 oz Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 2 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 2 tsp Dried Basil
  • ¼ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • ½ cup Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
  • or ½ cup Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese
  • 2 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
  • or 2 cup Shredded Provolone Cheese

Directions

  1. To prepare sauce, heat olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add salt, sugar and pepper.
  2. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
  3. Cook ziti about 3 minutes less than the package directions indicate. Drain pasta, reserving ½ cup of cooking water.
  4. Place pasta, ricotta, salt, garlic powder, basil, red pepper flakes, black pepper and half the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese in a large mixing bowl. Stir to mix, diluting with a few spoons of pasta cooking water until creamy. Add tomato sauce and mix. Place in baking dish. Sprinkle top with mozzarella and remaining Parmigiano Reggiano. Cover with foil and bake 30 to 45 minutes, until thoroughly heated. Remove foil during last 10 minutes of cooking time to brown.