Favorite baked ziti recipe?

What’s everyone’s favorite baked ziti recipe? Growing up it was the back of the polly-o package all the way. I haven’t made it in a while and want to make a couple trays with some frozen sauce I need to use. Wondering if there are any (simple) variations that are favorites around HO.
Thanks!!!

I like a NYT version by Colu Henry with Italian sausage, spinach, canned tomatoes, ricotta, pecorino, and crème fraîche (although I use sour cream). This makes alot and is fairly rich and indulgent, but when I’m craving the ultimate comfort food, this is what I want.

The link below is a gift link.

I will be curious to read people’s favorites.

For me - growing up in New Jersey - baked ziti was everywhere, at every party, school function, family gathering, everywhere. From “fancy” versions with sausage, peppers, etc/etc to “high school party” versions with just tomato sauce, ricotta and maybe mozzarella.

But honestly, I don’t think anyone ever used a recipe LOL. It was just a staple that everyone made up by “feel”. I remember when my sister-in-law (from Seattle) told us that she was going to make this recipe she saw that sounded really good . . .for baked ziti. She had never had it before . . my family couldn’t stop laughing at how different that experience was from ours.

So curious to see what others have determined as their favorites . . . I love baked ziti but don’t think I’ve ever made the same version twice.

Besides the sour cream for creme fraîche substitute, do you make other changes? I am struck by all the comments lamenting how combining the ricotta mixture with the tomato sauce makes it pink. Not sure why that matters? Curious about your experience. (I have this earmarked for when the neighbors college senior comes home and has friends over. I believe four or five of them could take this down. We’ll be in the other room, eating soup and salad.)

I remember those comments. Any pinkish-ness never bothered me. I pretty much follow the recipe as written.

Thanks so much! I know this will be a hit!!

Looking forward to the review!

From another native New Jerseyan…THIS. It just WAS. No recipe. You just knew.

I remember coming across this comparison (back during the pandemic) and trying all four… they were all good, but slightly different. It was a fun experiment!

Fun pandemic project!

We always called something like this, ‘pasta bake’ and it was pretty much the same concoction no matter the type of pasta. Thrown together when mama didn’t feel like ‘creating’…boiled pasta, cooked ground beef, cooked onions, canned pasta sauce (what ever was on hand—chunky vegetable, Italian herb, mushroom, sometimes more often it was a package or two of spaghetti sauce mix and a can or two of tomato paste etc), lots of mozz, some defrosted chopped spinach and parma. Usually made for potluck before or after a ballgame, swim meet or for a school get together. Adding canned (horrors!) mushrooms made it ‘fancy’. I made similar with real sauteed mushrooms, my version of ‘fancy’ when the kids were in sports. Good stick to the ribs carb loader.

Love this, thank you! I have really good homemade sauce from our homemade meatballs so I think I will do a mashup of the Maggianos and the Smitten.

Yes- same- baked ziti was alllllways at any function. Our family just did the recipe from the Polly-o container, which is barely a recipe and more just throwing together packages of stuff, and my grandma made it too, never asked her her ratios and sadly can’t now. I tend to avoid tomato sauce so I haven’t made it in years, but I’ve been craving this and am trying to deplete freezer stores before the holiday glut of leftovers.

I don’t have a recipe . . . but I do have a “tip” for my favorite baked ziti when I do make it. This is for “nicer” baked ziti, not the giant foil pans full for a high school party or giant family gathering.

I always put a big swig of olive oil in the bottom of the baking pan, and smear it around. Then mix the pasta with sauce and other ingredients in a separate bowl and pour into the baking dish. After pouring the pasta into the baking dish do NOT pat the pasta down to make a “flat top”. This way you get crispy bits on the bottom (from baking in the olive oil) and the pieces of pasta that are sticking up also get browned and crispy. Of course some people don’t like the crispy bits, but I am not in that camp - they are my favorite parts.

As mentioned above, I don’t like mixing ricotta into my tomato sauce for baked ziti. Not because of the “pink” color (who cares), but I don’t think you can taste the ricotta the same way. I prefer dollops of ricotta so that when you get a bit of it you really taste the smooth creaminess of the ricotta.

I may be making baked ziti tonight now after typing all this out. LOL

I like the dollop idea. I made a baked butternut and spinach pasta bake last week and the recipe states to do the ricotta in dollops on top and I think to your point it made the flavor of the ricotta more noticeable and I liked the texture.

Excellent point. The way baked ziti is assembled in the baking dish makes all the difference to me. After trial and error, I arrived at the same method as you detail above.

My favorite is on the simple end —no meat or veg, just pasta, sauce, and cheese.

Dollops of ricotta and cubed mozzarella inside, and grated mozzarella and maybe some parmesan too on top,

Of late, I prefer pink sauce to red sauce (in general) though it’s not purist. Doctored jarred or simple homemade (no spices, just garlic and onion, no gilding of the lily).

(If you’re making a large batch, consider loaf pans for portioning and freezing.)

Many years ago, I was making a giant batch for a shower, and came across a technique that eliminated cooking the pasta first, which was a huge save given the size of the batch: Soak the pasta in water for 30 mins or more, which rehydrates it, then assemble and bake — the water to cook the pasta has already been absorbed by it, so it just cooks in the oven. I might have thinned the sauce a bit out of distrust but it all worked out as claimed.

For a long time after, I would always soak my short pastas this way to cut down on the cooking time.

This will probably elicit a strong response, but I prefer rigatoni to ziti in this dish, and mezzi rigatoni most of all

Here is the pasta soaking idea (and apparently Serious Eats incorporated the idea in their baked ziti):

Baked Ziti is essentially unstructured lasagna and it is, as noted below, basically thrown together.

Mezze rigatoni (aka mezze maniche ragate) for life. The shape has permanently replaced penne in our kitchen. I appreciate that the tube isn’t as narrow so that sauce has a better chance of permeating the inside of the pasta tube. Fave supermarket brand is Garofalo.

A non-ridged ziti pasta shape just isn’t my jam though, leaving more for anybody who does prefer that type.