The Easiest and Best Baked Ziti Recipe - Sugar Spices Life (2024)

FAQs

Should you bake ziti covered or uncovered? ›

Should I cover Baked Ziti while it's baking? Yes. Cover loosely with foil so it doesn't stick to the cheese, then bake for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil so the cheese can go bubbly and golden!

I always add a lot of sauce and that helps prevent the dried out top layer. Take out of the oven as soon as cheese is melted and golden. It's also important to make sure all pasta is covered with sauce.

It's a lot like a classic lasagna casserole, but easier to make and without lots of layers or broken noodles. It makes for a perfect midweek or weekend meal, or a hot dish to bring to a potluck. Make extra and freeze for later.

Ricotta cheese – It creates a creamy layer in the center of the baked ziti. For the best texture, make sure to use whole milk ricotta in this recipe.

Why is my pasta bake watery? There are a couple of reasons why your pasta bake might be runny. Sauce that is thick at room temperature or from the fridge will thin out in the hot oven. It is better to have a thicker sauce at the beginning, so it will be the right consistency after cooking.

(You want to undercook the pasta slightly, as it will continue to cook in the oven. A good way to do this is cook it 2 minutes less than you normally would if preparing it al dente.) Reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta and rinse with cool water; set aside while the tomato sauce finishes cooking.

Layering is important (but easy!)

Layer half the mozzarella into the pasta and reserve half for the top. It bakes up golden-brown — the hallmark of a good pasta casserole. Make sure there is enough sauce to use as a layer at the top, under the mozzarella. This will insulate the pasta and keep it from drying out.

Add a Drizzle of Sauce or Butter

Even if you use a microwave (or even a skillet), there are ways to supercharge reheated pasta. If you hit your pasta with a glug of good olive oil, you'll let your pasta and sauce better express themselves. (This is also a great move for pasta that isn't leftover!)

Oven. To reheat baked ziti that has been refrigerated, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Again, if it is in a glass dish, be sure that the glass has come to room temperature first to avoid cracking. Cover the oven-safe dish with aluminum foil and bake for around 35-45 minutes.

Mix a cup of substitute egg or 4 eggs with a carton of cottage cheese. Mix until fully blended. I've used fat free cottage cheese this way and it's worked out well. Make sure to add salt and pepper - remember ricotta is a creamy but fairly bland ingredient without it.

Do Italians eat baked ziti? ›

Baked Ziti is a popular Italian-American dish that is not commonly found in Italy.

Make sure to toss your ziti with plenty of sauce

But we've all likely sunk a fork into a baked ziti that's just too dry, seeming like a conglomeration of noodles instead of a moist sum of its parts. That pitfall, according to The Kitchn, is almost always due to not saucing the ziti adequately.

Mascarpone: Another Italian cheese, mascarpone makes a great ricotta substitute. However, since mascarpone is more tart and flavorful, you should only use it in dishes with other strong flavors.

For extra creamy ricotta, add in an extra egg, a handful of grated parmesan, and a quarter cup of shredded mozzarella. Eggs help prevent the ricotta from drying out and serve to bind the ricotta so it doesn't become runny. One or more eggs are recommended whether you add the other ingredients mentioned here or not.

Most traditional lasagna doesn't use ricotta cheese. Instead, bechamel sauce mixed with parmesan cheese is used.

Cover your pan with a lid to help bring the water up to the boil more quickly, then remove the lid once the water is boiling or reduce the temperature slightly to stop it bubbling over. Add the pasta to the water once it's boiling, never before, and cook without the lid.

Should you cover the pasta when cooking it? It's okay to put a lid on the pot while you are waiting for the water to boil. However, after it starts to boil and you add the pasta to the water, you should remove the lid to prevent the water from bubbling over.

Leaving the pot uncovered is also key because pasta should be stirred frequently to prevent sticking. Plus, because pasta should be cooked until al dente, a lid will make it hard to decipher how far along you are in the process, and might even lead to mushy noodles, which is the last thing you want.

I boil my pasta to just under a minute of “al dente” and then after my layering it typically bake it uncovered because I want the crusty cheese on top.