Tastes Better From Scratch

Everything tastes better homemade!

One Pan Baked Ziti

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If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a huge fan of quick and easy homemade dinners. A lot of people associate homemade or “from scratch” cooking as being time consuming or too much work, but that’s an attitude I want to squash with my blog. I make easy homemade dinners for my family every night because they are just that–EASY! They taste better homemade, I don’t spend hours slaving away in the kitchen, and I’m in control of what goes in the dish. I have tons of easy meals on the blog, like this Creamy Chicken and Asparagus Pasta, Thai Basil Chicken, or Creamy Tomato and Spinach Tortellini that all take less than 30 minutes to make. 

One Pan meals are appealing to everyone because the entire meal is made using just one pan! This One Pan Baked Ziti accomplishes my goal of an easy homemade dinner– only using one pan from start to finish! It’s these type of meals that qualify you as rock-star mom status in my book 🙂   It’s cheesy, sauce-y and totally delicious!

You can make it in any type of LARGE skillet, as long as it’s oven proof. A simple cast-iron skillet would work great.

If you can’t find ziti noodles at the store, buy them online, or substitute penne, farfalle, or other type of bite-size pasta. 

I like to serve this with a warm vegetable or a big green salad. Enjoy!

4.25 from 12 votes
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One Pan Baked Ziti
Author: Lauren Allen
Ingredients
  • 1/2 lb pound ground Italian sausage (I use "hot)
  • 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
  • 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 5-6 garlic cloves , minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 Tbsp dried basil (or 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves but add it at the end)
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 3 cups water
  • 12 ounces ziti or similar pasta
  • 1/2 cup half and half or heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • ground black pepper
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese , shredded
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
  2. Add olive oil to a deep, 12-inch or larger oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Add sausage cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, dried basil and oregano. Stir well. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes.
  3. Add the water and dry pasta. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to a low boil and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes or until noodles are tender.
  4. Stir in the half and half, and parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle mozzarella evenly on top. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the cheese has melted and browned, about 5 minutes. Enjoy!

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Comments

  1. That looks wonderful! I’m a sucker for baked ziti. I’ve never tried to make it in one pan though. That would save so many dishes haha.

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    • The pics looJed so yummy so I had to try it! Omg!!! It turned out amazing. The whole family LOVED it. Thank you for sharing 😊

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    • Aw man this looks amazing. Well made it tonight and the ice and I went back for seconds. Thanks for the post and recipe.

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      • When my husband & I use ground hamburger or sausage we rinse it under hot water to try to get a lot of the fat off. When we use hot sausage we don’t rinse it as long so the hot flavoring doesn’t go down the drain or we add some crushed red peppers & sometimes some Cajun power seasoning. It works out great & no one else knows we rinse the meat. My husband is the one who taught me to use spices on most everything. He is the real cook in the family & does a lot better than I do. Sometimes I don’t like to add a bunch of spices because I like things that don’t have a lot of seasonings, like mac & cheese.
        Rinsing the meat after it is cooks takes away a lot of the calories.

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  6. My son loves pasta (me not so much) so I dread making it, but this I may try as it sounds so easy. I think he’ll really like it. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. I love recipes that don’t require a whole ton of clean-up afterward! 😀 I’ve never tried making baked ziti, but this would be the perfect dish to warm up with! :]

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  13. I made this tonight and we loved it! I substituted regular mild sausage for the Italian sausage. Do you know what would work well for a vegetarian version?

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  15. Oh.My.Gosh!! Just made this tonight and it all disappeared. My hubs even cleaned his plate with his crusty bread, it was SO GOOD. I added sliced zucchini and red bell pepper, it was delicious. Thanks for such an inspiring recipe!

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  16. Wonderful recipe…had to cut the kids off so my hubby would have some! Going in my meal plan. I am a huge fan of skillet meals a.k.a one dish wonderfuls!

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  17. I made it today and the one thing I realized is that you don’t need to preheat the oven at the very beginning. Otherwise you have an oven going at 500° for quite a while before you actually put the dish in and it warms up the kitchen a little too much!

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  18. I agree about the oven – no need to turn on until last minute. 500 degrees heats your house up pretty quick. No bueno if its summer time! Of course if its winter, I guess it doesn’t matter. I did not use the red flakes. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly and it was delicious. I bought the diced tomatoes that are already seasoned with basil and oregano, so there was no need to add those spices. My husband and two teens loved this!

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  19. I have printed a number of your recipes this morning. I love simple and fresh and all of yours seem so easy. I will be making them starting tonight. Also I have most the ingredient’s in my house already! Please know that I will be sharing these with my friends also. I have shared you on my ace Book page. Thank you for so many ideas!

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  21. I really love this one pan recipe! The taste is wonderful. However, I was wanting to double it but I don’t have a big enough pan. How could I adapt this for a casserole dish?

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    • Hi Noemi, that would work easily! Cook the sauce according to step 1 directions. Then cook the the pasta separately in boiling water until tender. Then combine the sauce and pasta in a large bowl. Stir in the half and half and parmesan cheese and then pour everything into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle mozzarella on top and bake. I’d bake it at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes and then turn it to broil for 5.

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  23. I was looking for an easy recipe and found this “one pan baked ziti…I used sweet Italian sausage, crushed tomatoes (it’s what I had on hand), didn’t have a pan to put in the oven so when it came to step 4 I transferred it to a baking dish…I think, it came out great…I will be making this again & again…MAHALO for sharing this recipe with all of us…

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  24. I pinned this yesterday and made it this evening! It’s was very good! The only thing is that I didn’t use Italian sausage bc the the store near my house didn’t have it so I just used ground beef. Will make again!!!! Thank you for sharing!!!

    Reply

  25. Can’t wait to try this tonight! I’m doing beef instead so I’ll drain the grease, but I noticed it didn’t say if I should drain the diced tomatoes? Thanks!

    Reply

  26. So do you pour the water in with the sauce and boil it all with the noodles or do you do you boil the noodles separately?

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  28. This meal was fast, easy, and delicious! I added in fresh spinach with the cream and Parmesan for an all in one meal. It got raves and the compliment that it was better than any baked ziti my husband had ordered at several Italian restaurants! Thanks so much, and I’m eager to try more of your recipes!

    Reply

  31. This would be nice if I had a bigger pan😊 Oh well, I don’t mind dishes! It’s still quick and easy and very delicious! I’m making it for the second time.

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  32. Just finished eating this with my hungry pregnant wife. She was craving Italian, and this hit the spot. Thanks! This reminds me of Timbalo from Johnny Carino’s country Italian restaurant before they tried to make their menu healthier. Except this was simpler and better. I subbed whole milk cottage cheese 4 cream, and skip the parmesan. Will be making this again soon😉

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    • Forgot to mention we used penne pasta, boiled it separately, and used a giant cast iron pan as the main baking pan. Our cheap Rachel Ray skillets couldn’t take 500 degrees!

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  33. So i made this last night and the flavor was so so good, but there was wayyyy to many noodles and not enough sauce, did you put the right measurements on the recipe??? Because you put 12oz of ziti and only 8 oz can of sauce and 15oz diced tomatoes and to me it was just to much pasta. I was really upset because the flavor was great it just wasnt saucey enough.

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  34. This is SO GOOD! Made it tonight on a whim, just happened to have everything. Will definitely be making it again. I love spicy, so the hot sausage and red pepper were right up my alley, but if you’re not into spicy, then you can get mild sausage or leave out the red pepper. I also only added 2 teaspoons of basil, which seemed to be perfect. This is a yummy, easy meal that will go a long way and fill you up! Can’t wait to eat leftovers tomorrow!

    Reply

  35. I made this and it had waaaaayyyyy tooo much water and i followed the recipe as is i would use maybe 1-2cups of water

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  38. This is one of my go to meals! Not only does my famil (toddlers included) love it, but everyone I make it for loves it! Anytime I need to take a meal to someone this is the winner!!!
    SO easy but delicious! Sure to impress!

    Reply

  39. This has become a family favorite and also qualifies as nice enough for company! The only changes I’ve made are to use only 6oz of pasta and half of the water listed. Lately, we’ve also tossed in a bag of fresh spinach when adding the cream, for an easy one dish meal. Thanks so much for this fabulous recipe. My husband says it’s even better than the one at the Italian restaurant he loves!

    Reply

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