Baked Ziti

Ziti for your sweetie this Valentine’s Day!

All right…full disclosure time. This is, in fact, NOT baked ziti. But I’m calling that anyway, because “baked Hello Kitty pasta” sounds stupid. Cute…but stupid.

My daughter is a lover of all things Sanrio, so she got a pound of this stuff from a friend of hers for Christmas. What to do with a pound of Hello Kitty pasta, you may ask? My first thought was mac and cheese, but really I just wanted something I could make ahead and stick in the freezer for one of those nights when I just don’t feel like cooking. Ziti is one of those recipes. It can be baked immediately, or assembled and then frozen and stored.

I ultimately ended up baking it immediately, but I have made this and frozen it many, many times. Because it freezes so well, it’s really one of those recipes that is great for weeknights, company, and even special meals when you want to make something nice for your sweetheart. <3 Making it in advance and freezing it means you don’t have to spend all night in the kitchen!

Baked Ziti

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 1 pound ziti
• 1 whole egg
• 1 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese whole or part skim
• 4 cups marina sauce see note
• 1 pound Italian sausage hot or sweet
• 1 small onion diced
• 1 ½ cups freshly grated parmesan divided
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella divided

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease a 9X13 baking dish.
• Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook pasta, cooking to just shy of recommended cooking time (i.e., if cooking time is 7 minutes, cook it for about 6). Drain well.
• While pasta is cooking, remove sausage casings and cook sausage over medium heat, breaking up in pan. Add onion to pan when sausage is mostly browned and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes or until sausage is fully cooked. Drain any excess grease.
• In a small bowl, combine ricotta, 1 cup grated parmesan and egg. Mix until well combined.
• Pour half of drained pasta in bottom of greased pan. Top with half of sausage, half of ricotta mixture, 1/3 of mozzarella and half of marinara sauce. Repeat with remaining pasta, sausage, ricotta mixture, 1/3 of mozzarella and sauce. Top with remaining parmesan and mozzarella.
• Bake at 375 degrees, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until bubbling. Broil for a couple of minutes to brown the top.

Notes

** This is the recipe I use for marinara sauce.

** To freeze, prepare through step 5. Allow to cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and foil and freeze for up to three months. To heat, defrost at least two days in fridge, pulling out to rest on the counter an hour before baking and bake at 375 for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. (You may want to loosely tent the top with foil to prevent over browning…especially if it’s not fully defrosted.)