Baked Ziti

baked penne pasta with the cheese melted

Print Recipe

Baked Penne with layers of rich tomato meat sauce, pasta, and gooey creamy cheese.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: best recipes, casserole, ground beef, pasta, sausage

Servings:

Calories: 515kcal

Author: Cindy Hopper

Ingredients

1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion chopped
1 pound lean ground beef or sausage
2 24 ounce jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese sliced (about 9 round slices)
1 ½ cups sour cream
6 ounces mozzarella cheese shredded (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Layer in the casserole as follows:

Put a very thin layer of sauce mixture (about 1/2 cup) in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
Layer half (1/2) of the ziti pasta.
Layer provolone cheese slices over the pasta.
Spread sour cream over the slices of cheese.
Spread half of the remaining sauce mixture over the cheese and sour cream layer.
Layer the remaining ziti pasta over the meat sauce.
Next, add a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Then layer on the remaining sauce mixture.
Top with grated Parmesan cheese

Baking Instruction:

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted

Notes

People commonly ask can you use penne for baked ziti? Substituting penne for baked ziti and vise versa is perfectly acceptable. This is because there is a slight size difference and ziti has ridges on the pasta while penne is smooth.

Nutrition