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

FAQs

Should I cook baked 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!

Having said that, 2 oz. (by weight) dried (i.e. raw, uncooked) pasta per person is considered a good single-serving rule of thumb.

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.

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.

Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil in order to keep all the moisture. This will keep the pasta from drying out. Another tip is to add around ¼ cup of water to the dish to help prevent a dried out baked ziti.

(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.

Most recipes call for one pound of pasta — which is a standard box or bag — to serve four to six people.

Depending on the shape, pasta will approximately double in size when cooked, so the amount of cooked pasta can vary. For smaller shapes like penne, elbows, rotini, and bowties, approximately ½ cup of dry pasta is two ounces, so that's a good rule of thumb. A 12 ounce box of these shapes will have six servings.

One pound of cooked pasta can typically serve about 4 to 6 people. The serving size of pasta can vary depending on factors such as appetite, dietary restrictions, and the intended purpose of the meal.

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.

Does baked ziti contain ricotta cheese? ›

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.

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!)

Some acidic bakes (like fruit cobblers) and lasagna or casserole (containing tomatoes, citrus, or other acidic fruit) may bake best in a glass dish, to prevent the metal from reacting to the acidic ingredients.

Save your glass pans for lasagna, plátanos maduros horneados, baked eggs, piñon, casseroles, and doughnut bread pudding—they're easy to clean, they're so smooth they're naturally nonstick, they'll keep your kugel warm as it sits on the table, they won't cause discoloration or off-tastes when you're slow-roasting ...

Acidic ingredients like tomatoes and citrus can react with aluminum (the most common metal used in bakeware), creating a metallic taste in your food. This is why lasagna and other casseroles with acidic ingredients are often baked in glass.

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.

If uncovered, the prolonged exposure to heat will quickly dry out your lasagna, no matter how much sauce you've added. Make sure to always add a layer of tin foil over your baking dish, which will trap the moisture inside while still allowing the dish to cook properly.