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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So good and so easy. This recipe is a keeper! The only change I made was transferring the combined ingredients into a larger casserole pan for the oven.
So easy and delicious, I added more parm and mozzarella, b/c why not! Used my Dutch oven and it came out perfect!
I made this tonight with the only change being I used the whole 16 oz box of pasta instead of the 12 oz written. I cooked the sausage on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes to keep it from splattering. I added about 1/8 c extra water but left the sauce and tomatoes the same. It ended up tasting great! My picky teenager that hates lasagna and spaghetti said “this actually tastes good.” For me, that’s a win, since I love Italian food and it’s nice to find something everyone likes! Thank you so much!
Tasted great! Next time I’ll reduce the water to 2 cups and add a 398 ml can of tomato sauce rather than only an 8 oz can.
Love this recipe, it was so good. I definitely want to make this for my parents but my dad has gout and can’t have heavy cream or half and half, is there another substitute?
Easy and delicious!!!!!
can you bake this in a glass dish??
You can bake it in any oven safe dish!!
30 minutes my a**. If you don’t have everything chopped and prepped beforehand (and who actually has all of the ingredients prepped beforehand!?) this will take more like an hour and a half plus more if you want to broil it.
My bf is not a slow cook and quite capable in the kitchen and this took foreeeevverrrrrrrr. Please be more honest in your time descriptions.
As for taste… it was mid.
Yikes.
I love this recipe, and it does take 30-35 minutes.
A well stocked pantry has all of these supplies; just because you had a lack in planning doesn’t make it dishonest in timing.
Don’t have half and half? Whole milk and butter. Don’t have whole milk? 2% and whipping cream.
Only have whipping cream? Love the extra creaminess.
Honestly, it’s an easy recipe to make during the week.
Do you think unsweetened almond milk would change the flavor completely? I know it would not be as rich.
Ummm nothing needs to be chopped for this recipe, so I’m not sure what you are talking about. If it’s too hard to mince garlic, buy it minced. Most of the “prep” like if you are shredding the Parmesan yourself, can be done while the noodles are cooking.
SOO Good!! I used half water and half beef stock like the comments suggested. I am usually not that big of fan of pasta but it was divine!! I snuck back to the pan later on to polish it off!!
No kidding!! Thank you.
Why do SO MANY of these contributors falsely post the amount of time it takes to complete a recipe? I’m constantly angered by the their representations vs. reality. You are absolutely right. Unless you are a TV chef/personality, YOU (ME) are doing EVERYTHING! I don’t have a personal shopper, prep person, etc. Also, who cleans up for them, once the dish goes into the oven? ‘Cause I don’t have anyone doing that for me, either.
Absolutely delicious!!! The only thing I changed was the water. I did 1.5 cups of water and 1.5 cups of beef stock just cause I saw someone say all the flavor disappeared! Other then that followed everything to a T! Oh and added extra mozzarella on top but who doesn’t love extra cheese! Will definitely be making this again!!
I made the baked ziti tonight for our dinner and I served salad with it, it’s absolutely amazing and delicious, thank you for sharing your recipe and this will be one of my favorite now to make and it’s very easy to make