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How to Make Baked Ziti Plus - A Step-by-Step Guide

There's nothing quite like a comforting, hearty pasta dish to satisfy your cravings, and one of the most beloved and classic Italian-American pasta recipes is Baked Ziti. But why settle for the traditional version when you can take it a step further with our delicious Baked Ziti Plus recipe? This upgraded version takes all the flavors you love about Baked Ziti and adds a few extra ingredients and techniques to make it even more mouthwatering and satisfying.

Our Baked Ziti Plus recipe ...

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Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
  • 1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • 3 pounds Italian link sausage
  • 2 green bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch strips
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 2 (16 ounce) packages rigatoni
  • 2 (16 ounce) packages mozzarella cheese
  • 1 (24 ounce) carton ricotta cheese

Information

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 3 hrs 55 mins
  • Total Time: 4 hrs 15 mins
  • Servings: 16
  • Yield: 16 servings

  • Heat olive oil in a stockpot over medium-low heat; cook and stir garlic in the hot oil until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes.
  • Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes; drain and discard grease. Stir ground beef into garlic. Add crushed tomatoes and tomato puree to ground beef mixture; season with salt and pepper. Cover stockpot and simmer mixture, stirring occasionally, until flavors have blended, about 2 hours.
  • Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook sausage links in the hot skillet until browned and not longer pink in the center, 10 to 15 minutes; drain and discard grease. Slice sausages into 1/4-inch rounds. Stir sausage, green bell pepper, and onion into the simmering tomato sauce; cook, stirring occasionally until bell pepper and onion are softened, about 1 hour.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  • Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook rigatoni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, 10 to 11 minutes. Drain and return rigatoni to pot.
  • Dice about 3/4 the mozzarella into 1/8-inch cubes. Mix cubed mozzarella with ricotta cheese in a bowl. Stir cheese mixture into cooked rigatoni until mozzarella cheese begins to melt. Pour rigatoni-cheese mixture into 2 large casserole dishes; add tomato-meat sauce. Toss well.
  • Slice the remaining mozzarella cheese and arrange on top of rigatoni mixtures.
  • Bake in the preheated oven until mozzarella cheese is melted and browned, about 45 minutes.

    • Nutrition

    783 cal.

    • Total Fat: 41g
    • Saturated Fat: 18g
    • Cholesterol: 118mg
    • Sodium: 1485mg
    • Total Carbohydrate: 57g
    • Dietary Fiber: 4g
    • Total Sugars: 9g
    • Protein: 49g
    • Vitamin C: 27mg
    • Calcium: 631mg
    • Iron: 6mg
    • Potassium: 942mg

    Categories

    Pasta recipes
    Cheese recipes
    Tomato recipes
    Meat recipes
    Casserole recipes