This Baked Ziti casserole is made with a ground beef and veggies sauce, lots of cheese and a layer of ricotta / cottage cheese mix to add some extra flavor and creaminess to this amazing dish!!
There are so many baked ziti casserole recipes and I know that chances of people coming across mine are pretty slim. But in the off chance you somehow landed here, let me tell you why I decided to publish this recipe.
- I don’t like a lot of tomato sauce in baked ziti or lasagna so this won’t be drenched in tomato sauce.
- I love using both ricotta and cottage cheese because the combination reminds of a cheese product from back home in a small corner of the Mediterranean.
- Most importantly, my kids and guests love this recipe so it’s easy for me to hand out anytime they ask for it:)).
Ingredients for Baked Ziti Casserole
I use simple ingredients but try to pick good quality ingredients since they make a difference taste wise.
- ziti pasta
- olive oil
- red onion and garlic
- ground beef
- tomato sauce
- Italian seasoning, sea salt and black pepper
- basil
- spinach
- ricotta
- cottage cheese
- mozzarella
- parmesan
- flat leaf parsley
For the mozzarella and parmesan cheese – if you can get sliced mozzarella and grate your parmesan cheese, that will make such a big difference. But I also understand that that is time consuming, so don’t feel guilty for getting shredded bags of mozzarella and parmesan!
Finally, when it comes to ricotta and cottage cheese, I prefer whole milk ricotta and regular cottage cheese for best taste. I mix them in a bowl with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil. It helps to create a creamy sauce that will be a layer of the casserole.
Let’s bake a ziti casserole!
Let’s break down the process step by step and I have plenty of pictures to go with it:).
- Dice red onion and mince garlic, saute them in olive oil.
- Add ground beef and brown it, use a wooden spoon to break the beef and mix as it cooks.
- Add Italian seasoning, sea salt, black pepper and mix thoroughly. Then add tomato sauce. Mix and let it simmer. Add basil towards the end.
- Once sauce is ready, add spinach and let it cook an extra minute or two for spinach to wilt and mix with sauce. Turn heat off and let sauce cool off a little.
- Boil ziti pasta in salted water until al dente (maybe even a minute less). Drain.
- Time to Layer the Casserole:
- Layer 1 – meat sauce
- Layer 2 – ziti pasta
- Layer 3 – ricotta/cottage cheese sauce
- Layer 4 – meat sauce
- Layer 5 – shredded cheese
- Layer 6 – ziti pasta
- Layer 7 – meat sauce
- Layer 8 – more shredded cheeses
- Bake casserole at pre-heated oven on 350 degrees F (about 180 degrees C) for about 30 minutes.
- Garnish before serving with flat leaf parsley and individual plates with fresh basil.
How do you serve this baked ziti casserole?
I love serving this baked ziti casserole with different salads as side dishes. Most commonly I serve these salads:
- Lettuce, dill and feta cheese salad.
- Greek salad
- Caesar salad
- Citrus based salads like this orange salad or beets and orange salad.
- Tomato & parsley salad.
Freezing and Storing Instructions
Assembly of this casserole is pretty fast, despite having 8 layers. So if I want to speed up the process, I usually make the meat sauce ahead of time or double it up and freeze it. Then the day I’m making the casserole, I thaw then simmer the sauce for few minutes while I cook the pasta then quickly assemble and bake.
Another option is to assemble the whole casserole and freeze it! Cover it tightly and freeze for a month or two. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake the next day at dinner time.
Leftovers of the casserole taste amazing few days later since flavors have had more time to meld together. Store leftovers in an airtight container for few days in the refrigerator. Warm up in the oven in an oven safe dish or in the microwave. Enjoy:).
Baked Ziti with Ground Beef and Spinach
Equipment
- 1 Medium pot
- 1 Wooden spoon
- 1 Strainer for pasta
Ingredients
Beef Sauce
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1.5 lbs ground beef
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 0.5 tbsp black pepper
- 2 cans tomato sauce about 15 ozs each
- 2-3 ozs water
- 4-5 basil leaves
- 2-3 ozs spinach
Ricotta/Cottage Cheese Sauce
- 8 ozs whole milk ricotta
- 8 ozs cottage cheese
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- pinch sea salt
Pasta Boil
- 16 ozs ziti
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- water enough to fill the pasta pot and cover the pasta
Shredded cheeses
- 8 ozs mozzarella
- 8 ozs parmesan
Instructions
Prepare the Beef Sauce
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Set a medium pot over the stovetop in medium heat, add olive oil.
- When oil is shimmery, add diced onions and minced garlic. Use a wooden spoon to stir occasionally. When translucent, add ground beef and brown while stirring
- When beef is browned, add Italian seasoning, sea salt and black pepper. Mix.
- Pour both cans of tomato sauce in then add a little water to each can, rinse and pour that in too. Mix the sauce and lower heat to simmer.
- Add chopped basil to sauce as it cooks. Finally add spinach, it will take about a minute or so to wilt. Turn heat off, mix and cover the pot. Set it aside!
Prepare the ricotta/cottage cheese sauce
- Mix ricotta and cottage with olive oil and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
Boil the pasta
- Get a pasta pot and fill it with water, set to boil. Add salt to your usual taste. Once water boils, add ziti in the pot. Cook pasta al dente and drain the water on a pasta strainer.
Casserole Assembly
- Get a 10×15 casserole dish. Add a layer of meat sauce on the bottom.
- Add ziti over the meat sauce. Then add a layer of ricotta/cottage cheese.
- Then add the 2nd layer of meat sauce. Cover with a mix of shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
- Add another layer of ziti pasta. Then the final layer of meat sauce. Cover with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the casserole dish for about 30 minutes or until the cheese on top is becoming golden brown and bubbly.
- Let the casserole cool down for about 15-20 minutes before cutting into it. Garnish with fresh flat leaf parsley. Enjoy:)
Notes
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for few days. Warm them up in the oven or microwave.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin any of the pictures from this post to your boards in Pinterest. Let me know in comments if you have any questions or want to share your own version of baked ziti:). Thank you for reading my blog, it makes a difference to me and my family!!
More Pasta Dishes
If you love pasta like my kids and my family, here are some more pasta dishes for you:
- Gigli pasta with green peas
- Baked penne pasta with turkey
- Bucatini cacio e pepe
- Pasta with meat and mushrooms sauce
Mary F. Schrouder
Can’t wait to try it but I’m wondering if you could make two smaller casseroles out of it so I can freeze one of them as it’s only me in the household? And I love the way you picture the recipe all the way through it’s very helpful and kind thank you
Sonila
Hi Mary, thank you so much for your kind comment! Yes, you definitely can make two of them in smaller baking dishes and freeze one for later. Another option is to make half the casserole but the whole meat sauce. Freeze half of the meat sauce for next time and thaw it when you need it. Then you can assemble a small casserole and bake as needed.