Better Baked Ziti

Baked ziti is a favorite Italian pasta dish, and our Better Baked Ziti is so convenient to make, you can easily turn out a restaurant-style baked pasta dish even on a busy weeknight. Now isn’t that “better” than a high-priced restaurant tab?

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ziti
• 1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 3 cups (12 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 3 cups spaghetti sauce, divided
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9- x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
    
2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook ziti until just barely tender; drain and place in a large bowl.
    
3. Mix ricotta cheese and half the mozzarella cheese with the ziti. Cover bottom of prepared pan with half the spaghetti sauce. Spoon ziti mixture into pan; cover with remaining spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and top with remaining mozzarella cheese.
    
4. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until cheese melts and is light golden.

Notes

• The hearty-style prepared spaghetti sauces are especially good with this, and when you don't have ziti on hand, it's fine to simply substitute other shapes.
   
• For easy Italian recipes you will make again and again, we've compiled this collection of 35 No-Fail Italian Favorites, Plus 7 Classic Sauces you can make at home!