I created this Baked Ziti with Meatballs as part of a Sponsored post with Hamilton Beach.
Baked Ziti is a classic comfort food pasta dish everyone loves. Loaded with marinara sauce and lots of gooey, melted cheese, it’s feel-good food at its best.
I love making baked ziti with meatballs, but it could also be made with meat sauce or completely vegetarian.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
If you love lasagna (and who doesn’t?) you’re bound to love baked ziti. Both pasta dishes have nearly the same ingredients, but baked ziti is less layered and more of a creamy mixture. Every bite is comforting!
Ingredient Tips
Marinara sauce – I always make my Sunday Gravy for baked ziti. I start it in the morning and just let it cook in the slow cooker until I’m ready for it later that day. For a time-saving shortcut, use a good-quality pasta sauce.
Ziti pasta – I can usually find ziti in the store but if you can’t, penne or mostaccioli pasta is about the same size and would be a good substitute.
Meatballs – These are totally optional, but if you want to add meat to your ziti, brown them and then let them cook in my Sunday Gravy all day.
Cheese – I use a combination of mozzarella cheese and Pepper Jack cheese. I like the zing in Pepper Jack, but you could use all mozzarella if you’d prefer.
Equipment
Food processor – I tried the Hamilton Beach 8-Cup Stack & Snap Food Processor to create this baked ziti with meatballs recipe. I used it to chop, puree and shred and I was really impressed. (You’ll see what it can do in the step-by-step directions below) but it’s very capable at an affordable price point. It would make a great holiday or housewarming gift.
Scroll down to the bottom to enter my giveaway and you might be the lucky winner of one of these Hamilton Beach beauties yourself!
Step-by-Step Directions
Step 1: To make my homemade Sunday Sauce, use a food processor to puree half of the fresh Roma tomatoes. As mentioned above (in equipment notes) I used the Hamilton Beach 8-Cup Stack & Snap Food Processor for all my food prep and it pureed the tomatoes perfectly.
For the other half of the tomatoes, I used the food processor to chop them into small chunks because I like a little texture in my baked ziti sauce. I still used the chopping blade but just pulsed a few times.
I also used the food processor to chop my onions and chili peppers. The chili peppers add a little kick to the sauce.
Pour all of that tomato goodness into your slow cooker, then stir in the rest of the Sunday Sauce ingredients.
Step 2: If making baked ziti with meatballs or meat, add the browned meatballs or cooked ground beef and stir into the sauce. The meatballs will finish cooking while the sauce simmers all day.
Step 3:If you’re running low on time, you can use pre-shredded cheese from the grocery store but shredding your own cheese is so easy in a food processor.
The Hamilton Beach 8-Cup Stack & Snap Food Processor has both coarse and fine shredding options. I like a thicker cut so I chose to use the coarse side of the blade. I was really, really happy with how it shredded the cheese.
Step 4: In medium bowl, mix together ricotta cheese and egg. Stir in ¾ cup of mozzarella cheese and ¾ cup of Pepper Jack cheese. Set aside.
Step 5: In large pot, cook pasta about 1 minute less than package directions. Drain, return to pot. Add cheese mixture; stir in.
Step 6: Add 4 cups of cooked marinara sauce to the pasta mixture, stirring to mix in thoroughly.
Step 7: Pour into a large rectangular baking dish with high sides.
Step 8: Spread another 2 cups of marinara sauce over the top.
Step 9: Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese and Pepper Jack cheese on top of the sauce.
Step 10: Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and tent it so that the cheese won’t stick to the foil. Bake 30 minutes; remove the foil. Bake another 10 minutes until heated through.
Step 11: Serve and enjoy! But, if you’re having baked ziti with meatballs, spoon a serving of baked ziti on a dinner plate then spoon some meatballs and extra sauce over the top.
Recipe FAQ
Penne or mostaccioli will work great!
Lasagna is defined by its layers, but baked ziti uses a mingling of sauce, filling, cheese and pasta.
Mixing the pasta with the filling helps it retain moisture and two layers of sauce and cheese help insulate the pasta as well.
Expert and Time-Saving Tips
- If shredding mozzarella cheese, choose a low-moisture block of cheese (found by shredded cheese packages), not the round wet mozzarella balls (by deli/bakery).
- When shredding fresh cheese, cut each cheese block into sections and freeze. Frozen cheese resists gumming up and sticking to the blades!
- Although I prefer making homemade tomato sauce, jarred sauce is a time-saving (but more expensive) alternative.
- If making my Sunday Gravy recipe, instead of using fresh Roma tomatoes, you may substitute two 28-ounce jars of crushed tomatoes.
- Find out more about the Hamilton Beach 8-Cup Stack and Snap Food Processor here.
Related Recipes
Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 1¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese divided
- 1¾ cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese divided
- 16 oz ziti pasta may substitute penne or mostaccioli
- 6 cups marinara sauce
- optional: meatballs or cooked ground beef
Instructions
- If making homemade pasta sauce instead of store-bought, get it started in the slow cooker in the morning. Add browned meatballs or cooked ground beef to the sauce if desired. If using jarred sauce, proceed to the next step.
- In medium bowl, mix together ricotta cheese and egg. Stir in ¾ cup of mozzarella cheese and ¾ cup of Pepper Jack cheese. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- In large pot, cook pasta about 1 minute less than package directions. Drain, return to pot. Add cheese mixture; stir in.
- Add 4 cups of marinara sauce; stirring well to mix.
- Spread pasta mixture into 13 x 9-inch baking dish (or larger/deeper if you have it). Spoon 2 additional cups of pasta sauce over the top .
- Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and Pepper Jack cheese over the top of the sauce.
- Cover with foil, tenting the foil so that it won't stick to the cheese. Bake for 30 minutes; remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes. Serve with extra sauce and meatballs, if desired.
Notes
- Penne or mostaccioli noodles can be used in place of ziti.
- If shredding mozzarella cheese, choose a low-moisture block of cheese (usually located by the shredded cheese products), not the round wet mozzarella balls (by deli/bakery).
- When shredding fresh cheese, cut each cheese block into sections and freeze. Frozen cheese resists gumming up and sticking to the blades!
- Although I prefer making homemade tomato sauce, the jarred sauce is a time-saving and acceptable substitute, but you’ll need a good quality sauce and plenty of it. (Try making my homemade Sunday Sauce.)
- If making my Sunday Sauce recipe, instead of using fresh Roma tomatoes, you may substitute two 28-ounce jars of crushed tomatoes.
- Find out more about the Hamilton Beach 8-Cup Stack and Snap Food Processor here.
