baked ziti, that sounds really nice and makes you feel all warm inside. The name brings up pictures of cozy nights and gooey cheese. It’s a big hit in Italian-American cuisine, promising that great melty goodness. Online, people like it; it seems everyone wants to make it. But baked ziti often doesn’t deliver, at least not for me. This dish falls short of what it could be. Fixing it was my personal goal.
You want amazing results, the kind that call you back. But often, reality disappoints a lot. Noodles turn gummy and are badly overcooked. The sauce gets grainy or super thin. This dish could be great, yet it misses the mark. That quest took me down a big rabbit hole.
Trying different recipes led to surprising results. The best baked ziti doesn’t use ziti noodles. You might want to think about that idea for a minute. The pasta shape matters a lot here. It has a big impact on the final texture. Texture is super important.
Ziti is a tube pasta with a smooth outside. It originated in Italy long ago. Ziti holds sauce well inside its hole. But the smooth outside is a problem, though. In the oven, it gets soft but doesn’t crisp up. It needs some texture on the outside.
Compare this to short tube pasta with ridges. Rigatoni is a great example, as is penne. These ridged pastas change the game completely. Rigatoni ridges have many bumps and valleys. When heated, these ridges crisp up well. Crispy bits are what you want.
I have always wanted maximum crispy bits. Cheesy, crispy edges are truly the best part. Remember the lasagna corners that everybody fights over? That combination of a soft inside and a crispy edge is key. It adds texture that makes the dish shine. One friend summed it up well. “The more crispy, the better,” he said clearly.
Looking for crispy bits made me think of frico. You may know it as Parmesan crisps, perhaps. Frico is always a really perfect bite. It’s crispy, salty, cheesy, with a deeply savory flavor. It easily enhances so many dishes. But often, it’s best eaten alone.
I love it when frico occurs accidentally during cooking. Like when cheese oozes from baking chicken. That cheese gets crispy on the pan. Those small pieces are absolutely golden. The same goes for the crispy cheese edges that baked pasta gives you. It proves that this texture is universally loved.
Product on Amazon: Whole Foods Market, Organic Rigatoni, 16 OZ
Brand: Whole Foods Market
Binding: Grocery Product Group: Grocery
Price: 3.79 USD
Features:
1. Bronze Cut
2. Dense, Chewy And Tubular, Our Bronze Cut Rigatoni Is Made In An Italian Pastificio With 100% Organic Durum Wheat. We Slow-Dry It To Preserve Its Flavor, Which Comes To Life With A Bright, Veggie-Packed Sauté Of Asparagus, Carrots And Green Onions Topped With Toasted Walnuts.
3. Macaroni Product Made From Organic Durum Wheat Semolina
4. Whole Foods Market products give you that dance-down-the-aisles feeling, virtual aisles too! Our huge range of choices with premium ingredients at prices you can get down with makes grocery shopping so much more than tossing the basics in your cart.
5. An Amazon brand
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Making frico on purpose is also great at times. Add small crisps to pasta for a subtle crunch. Sprinkle them on salads for flavor and color. Frico is always wonderful, no matter what. I once described it as lacy, gossamer, uber – crispy cheese. That really captures its special crispness.
Not all frico are exactly the same. The term covers more than just Parmesan crisps. Other cheeses can also make great frico. I am just as in love with Gruyere frico. A good comparison is the skirt on fried dumplings. That delicate crispness is the key texture point here.
My best frico moment was a kitchen accident. It happened during a culinary school test one day. I was roasting fennel with cheese and left it for too long. The cheese melted well and got super crispy. The chef noticed this straight away. That little mistake earned me the highest score at that time.
That accident made me love this texture a lot. I often made that fennel and cheese dish again. I wrote that the cheese forms delicious, frico – laced fennel. It wasn’t just plain roasted vegetables. It was enhanced by the frico from the happy accident.
Parmesan, Basil and Lemon Wafers (Frico)
Equipment
- 1 Mixing Bowl
- 1 Baking Sheet Silicone preferred or parchment-lined
- 1 Silicone baking mat (Highly recommended)
- 1 Measuring Spoons
- 1 Offset Spatula For easy transfer
Ingredients
Main
- 1 cup shredded Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons shredded basil leaves
- 1/2 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Transfer a heaping tablespoon of Parmesan mixture onto a silicone or parchment-lined baking sheet and lightly pat down. A silicone baking sheet is highly recommended for this recipe. Repeat with the remaining cheese mixture, spacing the spoonfuls about 1/2-inch apart. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden and crisp. Cool and use a flat spatula to transfer from lined baking sheet.
Notes
The name “Frico” comes from the Friuli region in Italy, they say. Long ago, it was made with Montasio cheese to create big pancakes. Today, it also often refers to smaller Parmesan crisps. Chef Lidia Bastianich has a version with potato and onion. That big cake was tough to flip. It really wasn’t my favorite version.
All forms of frico are nice, though. But to me, frico is only cheese made crispy. This connects back to the point about baked pasta. Rigatoni works much better than ziti does. Its shape creates those crispy bits throughout. More surface area is well – exposed to the oven’s dry heat. That’s how it browns and crisps up well.
Baked ziti with smooth pasta is often soft overall, once past the crispy edge perimeter. The inside noodles can be gummy and just plain soft. There’s no interesting texture there. Baked pasta needs varied texture points. It should have a soft center plus crispy edges. Rigatoni provides this texture throughout. The ridges brown, offering a nice chew and crunch.
Eating well – baked rigatoni feels perfect. You get comforting sauce and cheese plus that crispness. A ridged noodle has caught the heat just right. It’s like a little frico bite, salty and rich. This texture always makes it amazing. My family wanted more after finally trying it. That small shape change actually made the biggest difference.
We know that ridged pasta like rigatoni is key for those crispy bites. But pasta alone isn’t everything in a baked dish. The sauce and cheese really help determine whether your dish turns out great or not. Lots of times, baked ziti goes wrong in this regard. This is why you get those underwhelming, watery outcomes. We surely want to avoid that soupy mess.
You know about those common problems with baked ziti. Sometimes the sauce is watery or just feels grainy, right? Much of the time, this happens because of the cheese you use. Many recipes want you to use ricotta for creaminess. But in my experience, ricotta doesn’t mix well with tomato sauce. Even whipping it with cream fails to smooth it out. It can turn grainy and then release a lot of liquid when baking.
Product on Amazon: DeLallo Organic Rigatoni Pasta, Made with 100% Semolina Durum Wheat Flour, Bronze Cut, Made in Italy, Non-GMO, Preservative Free, Large Tube Pasta for Baked Dishes, 1 Pound Bag, (16 Pack)
Brand: DeLallo
Binding: Apparel Product Group: Outdoors
Price: 74.35 USD
Features:
1. DRIED SLOWLY AT LOW TEMPERATURES: Preserves the color, texture, structure, taste, and aroma of the pasta
2. COOKS TO PERFECTION: Perfect pasta every time in just 13 minutes
3. VERSATILE PASTA SHAPE: This tubular pasta is great paired with a hearty Bolognese, a rich tomato sauce, or chunky vegetable sauce. It is also great for cheesy pasta dishes
4. ABOUT DELALLO: DeLallo is a 3rd generation family-owned and operated Italian foods company. We have been offering gourmet Italian ingredients for passionate home cooks since 1950
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Baked Rigatoni with Bechamel Sauce
Equipment
- 1 2-quart saucepan For making the bechamel
- 1 Large Pot For cooking the pasta
- 1 Whisk Essential for a smooth bechamel
- 1 Colander For draining the pasta
- 1 13x9-inch Baking Dish For baking the final dish
Ingredients
Main
- 1 stick unsalted butter 4 ounces
- 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 quart whole milk at room temperature
- Pinch fresh nutmeg
- Sea salt and white pepper
- 1 cup grated fontina
- 1/2 pound thinly sliced prosciutto julienned
- 1 pound dry rigatoni
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter diced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a 2 quart saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Always stirring, gradually add the milk and continue to whisk until the sauce is smooth and creamy. Simmer until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in nutmeg, 1/2 cup fontina, prosciutto and season with salt and white pepper. Set aside.
- In a large pot, bring to a boil 6 quarts of salted water. Add the rigatoni and cook for about 5 minutes. Since you will be cooking the pasta a second time in the oven, you want to make sure the inside is still hard. Drain in a colander. Return pasta to the pot and pour in bechamel sauce. Using a wooden spoon, mix well until all the pasta is coated with the sauce.
- Into a greased 13-by-9-inch baking dish, pour the pasta with cream sauce. Smooth out top and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup fontina. Dot the top with diced butter and bake in oven for 25 minutes or until bubbling and the top is golden brown.
Notes
Getting a creamy sauce without problems requires a new approach. We want to avoid grainy ricotta and the extra water you get from fresh mozzarella. I remembered when I made lasagna and it turned out great with this ingredient. Crème fraîche proved to be the fantastic solution for that creamy sauce. I think this ingredient really changes the whole game. It can handle acidic tomato sauce just fine and doesn’t break apart. You get a creamy texture and a pleasant tangy taste by making this simple swap.
The melting cheese you put on top matters, too. You want that classic cheese pull, but without a watery mess, right? Fresh mozzarella, while good at times, contains too much water for baking pasta. Instead, switch to low – moisture mozzarella for this task. That kind releases much less liquid when cooked. It keeps your sauce thick and not diluted at all, and you also get great cheese strings.
Beyond the cheese, the sauce itself must taste good and be flavorful. A basic marinara sauce serves as the starting point for it all, you see. First, add depth with onions, garlic, or perhaps some basil. A big spoonful of double – concentrated tomato paste is your secret weapon here. Cooking this paste slightly first deepens the flavor, believe me. Letting it simmer does help the flavors become strong and rich before you use it.
Finding a good store – bought marinara is quite a quest, though. Not all jarred sauces are the same; that’s what I learned from this test. A blind taste test I conducted showed this very clearly, you see. It revealed flavors ranging from truly disappointing to very good. We tasted eight different sauces just with plain pasta, you know. How much sauce you choose really matters for the final baked dish.
Product on Amazon: Frigo, Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese, 32.0 oz
Brand: Frigo
Binding: Grocery Product Group: Amazon Fresh Perishables
Price: 5.29 USD
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At the lowest points, some sauces fell far short. Ragú Traditional tasted like SpaghettiOs, but with a bitter flavor. It received a low score because of that unpleasant taste. Prego Traditional wasn’t much better in the test, either. It tasted too garlicky and sweet, as people described it as “syrupy garlic”. Even some store – brand sauces that were supposed to have flavor didn’t work sometimes. Trader Joe’s sauce tasted like some kind of herb bread, which is not suitable for pasta sauce.
Moving up, some sauces proved to be just okay. They were fine, especially considering their cost. Tuttorosso Marinara was considered solid and budget – friendly. It wasn’t bursting with flavor, but it didn’t offend in any way, you see. Classico Marinara impressed me with its flavor for a normal store – bought sauce, which was a surprise. Picking carefully among less – costly options can still yield decent results, though they may not be amazing.
The taste test really showed what quality makes a difference. Whole Foods 365 Organic won as a great budget – friendly organic choice. People said it was undeniably tasty and worth stocking up on. Cucina Antica cost more, but its flavor seemed almost perfect. It was mostly tomato – based, not overly herby, and tasted really fresh. Spending a bit more or seeking certain brands can greatly enhance the flavor of the final dish.
Lasagna with Bean Ragu
Equipment
- 1 Large Pot For cooking the pasta sheets
- 1 Saucepan or Dutch Oven For making the bean ragu
- 1 Cutting Board For chopping vegetables and pancetta
- 1 Knife For chopping ingredients
- 1 Baking Dish For assembling and baking the lasagna
Ingredients
Main
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped red onions
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped carrot
- 2 ounces coarsely chopped pancetta
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
- 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
- 3 1/2 cups Cesare's Cannellini Beans
- 1/3 cup red wine
- 2 cups Cesare's Tomato Sauce
- 2 cups store-bought low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 pound store-bought lasagna sheets
- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Instructions
- Finely chop the red onion, celery, carrot, and pancetta.
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat.
- Add pancetta and cook until crisp, then add chopped vegetables and cook until softened.
- Stir in chopped rosemary, then pour in red wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits.
- Add cannellini beans, tomato sauce, and stock to the pan.
- Bring the ragu to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, and let it cook gently while you prepare the pasta.
- Cook lasagna sheets in a large pot of salted boiling water according to package directions until al dente.
- Assemble the lasagna in a baking dish by layering some ragu, then pasta sheets, then grated Parmigiano Reggiano, repeating the layers.
- Finish with a final layer of ragu and a generous sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
- Bake in a preheated oven until bubbly and golden brown. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Notes
The test crowned Rao’s Homemade Marinara the winner. It received a perfect score, like 10 out of 10. It is a special premium product worth every single penny it costs. There is a real reason why people like this sauce so much everywhere. Aldi’s sauce was surprisingly close to Rao’s in terms of results, which surprised me. There might be a cheaper way to achieve that top – notch flavor profile without paying so much. Other good mentions included Michael’s of Brooklyn as well, which gave off a nice homemade vibe during the tasting.
Let’s talk about the step after the oven. It is a simple touch that people often overlook. Your baked pasta must sit and rest for at least 10 minutes at that time. I know you want to dig in when it smells so good, that’s for sure. But holding back is really important for good reason. The inside is extremely hot, and you will burn yourself if you eat it right now. More importantly, resting gives the components time to settle down in the dish.
Product on Amazon: Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce, 24 oz, All Purpose Tomato Sauce, Pasta Sauce, Carb Conscious, Keto Friendly, All Natural, Premium Quality, With Italian Tomatoes & Olive Oil
Brand: Rao’s
Binding: Grocery Product Group: Grocery
Price: 6.88 USD
Features:
1. Bring home the famous taste of Rao’s with this 24 ounce jar of Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce
2. ALL NATURAL, PREMIUM QUALITY: Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce is a premium, slow-cooked, all-purpose Italian pasta sauce. Each jar brings you the warm, classic flavor of homemade tomato sauce
3. INGREDIENT FOCUSED: Using the Rao’s Homemade classic recipe, this carb conscious marinara sauce is made with high quality, wholesome ingredients including tomatoes, olive oil, onions, garlic, basil and oregano
4. NO ADDED SUGAR AND 100% ITALIAN TOMATOES: Rao’s pasta sauce contains no added sugar, and only includes 100% Italian tomatoes, no paste , making it the perfect keto friendly spaghetti sauce to add to your pantry
5. HOMEMADE AND VERSATILE: Make every day delicious with Rao’s. Enjoy Rao’s carb conscious marinara sauce as is over pasta or use it as an ingredient in any of your delicious recipes
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Read more about: Ranking the Sips and Taking on the Bites: My First Foray into Texas Roadhouse
Baked Ziti with Sausage and Spinach
Equipment
- 1 Large Pot For cooking pasta
- 1 Large Skillet For cooking sausage
- 1 Large Mixing Bowl
- 1 Baking Dish Approximately 9x13 inch
Ingredients
Main
- 1 package of Severino Ziti
- 1 jar of Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce
- 2 cups of spinach
- 1 lb of mild italian sausage
- 1/2 cup of whole milk ricotta
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Cook ziti according to package directions, slightly less than al dente; drain and set aside.
- In a large skillet, brown the mild Italian sausage over medium heat, breaking it into small pieces.
- Drain excess fat from the sausage.
- Stir in the marinara sauce and spinach into the skillet with the sausage. Cook until spinach is wilted.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked ziti, sausage-sauce mixture, and ricotta cheese.
- Pour the mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
- Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until bubbling and lightly browned.
