Baked ziti has got to be one of the best home-style dishes out there, and it definitely shouldn’t be reserved just for Sunday dinner. Letting a store-bought sauce simmer with Italian sausage will give you a rich, flavorful sauce that tastes like you spent hours making it from scratch. The longer it cooks, the deeper the flavors become, and no one will ever guess it wasn’t completely homemade!
For those nights when you need something simpler, make the sauce ahead of time and freeze it. When you’re ready, just thaw, mix with the pasta and cheese, and bake as directed. It’s the perfect solution for an easy, delicious weeknight meal.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. box rigatoni pasta Cook in salted water until it's 1 minute shy of al dente*. Drain.
- 1 24oz (or larger) jarred spaghetti sauce My go-to is the Prego brand with mushrooms.
- 1 lb sweet Italian sausage links, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 lb. Italian sausage, ground sweet or hot depending on your preference
- ½ lg. onion, diced
- 1 15oz. whole milk ricotta cheese
- 2 C mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1 T fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 T fresh basil, chopped
- ½ tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Make the sauce: Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil to a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot and heat over medium until the oil starts to shimmer. Cut the sausage links into 2 inch pieces and add them to the pot. Sear the sausage, moving the pieces around as needed to develop a nice golden brown crust on the outside. There's no need to cook them all the way through—they'll finish cooking in the sauce. Once browned, remove the sausage pieces to a bowl and set them aside.
- In the same pot, add the ground sausage and diced onion. Cook over medium heat until the sausage is just browned and the onions are softened. Drain any excess fat from the pot to keep the sauce from becoming too greasy.
- Add the spaghetti sauce to the pot along with the browned sausage links. Stir everything together until well combined. Cover the pot and let the sauce simmer on low for at least 30 minutes, or up to several hours. Stir occasionally to prevent the bottom of the pot from burning. The longer you allow the sauce to simmer, the richer and more flavorful it will become.
- Prepare the Cheese Mixture:In a separate bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, parsley, basil, and salt. Mix until well blended. Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble the baked ziti. This will allow the flavors to meld and keep the mixture fresh.
- Assemble and Bake:When the sauce is ready, remove it from the heat and stir in approximately 2 cups of the prepared cheese mixture until well combined. Preheat your oven to 400°F.
- To assemble the baked ziti, start by ladling a cup or two of the sauce onto the bottom of your baking dish to create a flavorful base layer. Next, add the drained pasta to the sauce pot and gently stir until everything is well combined.Pour one-third of the pasta and sauce mixture into the prepared baking dish. Drop spoonful's of the cheese mixture evenly over the pasta layer. Top with another one-third of the pasta and sauce mixture, then add more dollops of the cheese mixture. Finally, top with the remaining pasta and sauce.
- Sprinkle a generous amount of shredded mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over the top. Lightly spray a piece of foil with cooking spray and cover the baking dish, placing the foil oil side down.
- Place the dish on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Then, uncover and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the top is bubbly and slightly crusty.
Notes
*Not overcooking the pasta is crucial to prevent the dish from becoming mushy. Boil the pasta in salted water until it just starts to lighten in color and still has a good bite or chew to it, about 1-2 minutes less than what the box indicates for al dente. This ensures that the pasta will finish cooking perfectly during baking, absorbing all the delicious flavors from the sauce
**For an extra boost of richness and flavor, consider saving your Parmesan rinds and placing a piece in the sauce while it simmers. The rind will infuse the sauce with a deep, savory taste that enhances the overall dish.
