My family loves this easy Baked Ziti recipe, and I love that it's made all in just one pan! It's as fast and delicious as comfort food gets and ready in less than 30 minutes!
Looking for more 30-Minute Meals? Try our Salmon Bowls, Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Spaghetti Pie, Cajun Chicken Pasta, or Crispy Bean and Cheese Burritos!
What we LOVE about this recipe:
- 30-minute meal – This baked ziti with sausage is one of many quick and easy 30 minute recipes that the whole family will enjoy.
- One-Pot Dinner – Only one pan from start to finish, which makes prep and clean-up a breeze.
- Adaptable – This recipe can be varied a lot depending on the ingredients you have on hand, like using different kinds of pasta or ground meat, or add in additional veggies.
How to make Baked Ziti:
Brown Sausage: Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, crumbling into small pieces, until browned, about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Make Sauce: Pour in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, dried basil and oregano. Stir well. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes.
Cook Pasta: Add water and dry pasta. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes or until noodles are tender.
Add Cheese: Stir in the half and half, and parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste then sprinkle mozzarella evenly on top.
Bake: Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the cheese has melted and browned, about 5 minutes.
Serve the best baked ziti recipe with a side salad or wedge salad and breadsticks or garlic knots!
Make Ahead And Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Follow the directions of making the sauce, up to step 4. Don't add and cook the noodles, yet. Continue with step 4 just before you want to serve the homemade baked ziti.
To Freeze: Prepare the ziti pasta up until the baking step. Cover with a double layer of aluminum foil sprayed lightly with non-stick cooking spray then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or, bake from frozen, covered in foil for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and uncover and bake 20-30 minutes longer, or until bubbly and warmed through.
Recipe Variations:
- Skillet: 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.
- Noodles: If you can't find ziti noodles at the store, buy them online, or substitute penne, farfalle, or another type of bite-size pasta.
- Meat: We love the flavor of ground sausage but feel free to substitute ground beef, or turkey.
- Cheese: Substitute any type of shredded cheese if you don't have mozzarella or parmesan.
- Crockpot Version: You can also make it in a crockpot.
Check out all my One Pot Meals:
- Hawaiian Meatballs
- American Goulash
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
- Pad Thai
- Lemon Chicken Pasta
- Pot Roast
- Spaghetti Pie
- Beef Gyros
- Tamale Pie
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Recipe
One Pan Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 5-6 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 Tablespoon dried basil (or ½ cup fresh basil leaves added at the end)
- 1/2 teaspoon Dried oregano
- 3 cups water
- 12 ounces ziti pasta (or similar pasta)
- 1/2 cup half and half (or heavy cream)
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Heat a large 12-inch or bigger oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, crumbling into small pieces, 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.
- Add the water and dry pasta. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes or until noodles are tender.
- 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!
Notes
Nutrition
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*I originally shared this recipe February 2015. Updated November 2018 and August 2023.
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We just bought a very large cast iron skillet with a lid this would be wonderful camping food. Thank you for sharing on My Recipe Magic.
It was meant to be! 🙂 Hope you like it
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! :]
As much as I love cooking, I really hate dishes 🙂 Hope you like it!
Pasta is one of my favorite dishes! I’ve always said that I have 1/18th percent Italian in my blood. This looks so good that I can’t not try it! 🙂
🙂 It really makes the best comfort food!
Looks amazing (and your photos are wonderful)! I love pasta and it tends to be agreeable to the toddler, so I’m going to have to try this one.
Thanks Lou! My toddler loves it too, which just makes life easier, right?! 😉
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.
Mmmmmm you are making me hungry! This looks delicious and I think I found my new dinner plan!
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This looks amazing. And how great that it is made in one pan! I’m going to have to add this to our meal schedule next week.
Thanks Aliza! Hope you like it!
One pan meals are the BEST!! I’m going to have to try making a veg-friendly version 🙂
Ooo I’d love to hear adaptions you make! That would be yummy
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.
I love that this is made in one pan! Can’t wait to try it!
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.
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 ?
Could someone tell me why these recipes always called for 8 oz or 12 oz of pasta why don’t they just make a recipe that use the whole Box it’s a pet peeve and so annoying And how do I adjust the water if I used a pound of pasta
My box of penne was 12 oz. Didn’t have an issue.
I do 4 cups of water to one 16 oz package of noddles & works great! Can also use some beef broth & less water for more flavor!
Aw man this looks amazing. Well made it tonight and the ice and I went back for seconds. Thanks for the post and recipe.
I agree! This looks yummy, and I do want to try it. Just a note – the pasta in the photo is rigatoni. Ziti is narrower, a little longer and smooth (no ridges). It also seems harder to find where I live so I will use the rigatoni.