Last week, I told you about this super delicious dinner we had. Baked Ziti is pretty basic, but adding in some alfredo sauce made this so much better.
NEW MOM DINNER – I was making this for a friend who just had a baby and decided to split it up into two smaller pans for each of us. I like doing this because I’m not a huge fan of leftovers so this makes us eat it faster. I also paired this with a bag salad kit, French bread, and a dessert for the my friend.
Here is what you’ll need (the formal recipe/ingredients will be at the end of this post..you can print that or read it all at one glance):
You’ll need diced tomatoes, alfredo sauce (I liked the one above), marinara sauce, a box of ziti pasta (or penne), 2 cups (or more) of mozzarella cheese shredded, one small onion, 1/2 lb Italian sausage, and 1/2 lb ground beef*.
*Take Note – You only need 1 pound of meat, but I like both the sausage and beef, so I cook a pound of both together and add in the whole chopped onion. I cook that till it’s all browned and then take away half of it to save and put in the freezer for another meal (spaghetti, baked ziti, lasagna, pizza, etc).
And here’s how you make it:
Brown your sausage and beef (or 1 pound of whatever meat you choose). In the middle of cooking, I add in the chopped onion. This is both meats plus the onion. I only used half of this to make 1 whole pound of meat mixture.
Next, pour in the diced tomatoes and marinara sauce into the meat.
Mix your cooked ziti pasta with the Alfredo sauce. Pour this into the pan.
I like to sprinkle this with a little cheese.
Then spread the meat/sauce mixture on top of the pasta and top with mozzarella cheese.
Bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted. I sprinkled some parsley on top once it was out of the oven.
- 1 pound ground beef or Italian sausage (I used ½ of both)
- 1 jar of marinara sauce
- ¾ cup chopped onion (use what you like)
- 1 jar of petite diced tomatoes (you can omit if you'd like)
- 1 jar of Alfredo sauce (I used Roasted Garlic Parmesan)
- 1 16oz box of Ziti pasta
- 2 cups of Mozzarella cheese (I used a bit more I had on hand)
- Optional - A dash of dried parsley for garnish
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare pasta according to directions.
- I used 2 aluminium pans, but if using a glass dish, lightly spray with cooking spray.
- Brown your meat and throw in chopped onion sometime in the middle of cooking.
- Drain the grease from the meat.
- Pour in the marinara sauce and diced tomatoes (if using) to the meat and stir around. I like to cook this a bit while I'm preparing pasta.
- Once pasta is done cooking, drain it, and add the Roasted Garlic sauce to it.
- Pour the pasta into the baking dish.
- I like to sprinkle a little cheese on top of the pasta but that's optional.
- Pour your marinara sauce/meat mixture over the pasta.
- Top the dish with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Enjoy and let me know if you end up making this!
And don’t forget my entire shop is on sale this month before I close it for Baby #3.
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This looks delicious and you are so smart making it for a friend who had a baby. AND SWEET!!! Thanks for sharing!
My mouth is watering. As soon as I can eat solid foods again, I’m so making this!! haha #adultbracessuck
I just read that you got braces! Oh man! I hope your mouth is not hurting too bad. I need braces on my top teeth (should’ve worn my retainer), but really don’t want to go down that path 🙁
So, I made this yummy dish last night and let me just tell you, to say it was a hit is an understatement!!! I had two adult kids (21 year old guys, friends of my daughter who is away at college) visiting and I had fixed this whole dish, (instead of making 2 dishes) and oh my goodness, I literally have just enough left for my husband and I for dinner tonight. They destroyed it!!! And I was informed that this HAD to be put on rotation! Thank you so much for such a great recipe. I am always on the look out for something different but delicious, and this definitely hit the spot!! Good luck with your upcoming labor with your little girl!
Yay! I’m so glad y’all liked this dinner. I’m definitely making it again!!! Thanks for commenting!
I made this on Sunday, and we loved it! Thank you!!
Made a tweaked version of this tonight! I LOATHE licorice so I omitted the Italian sausage and used all beef. Didn’t have ziti, so I used penne! Also used mozzarella and monterey-jack cheeses.. and I didn’t use diced tomatoes! Made a full 9×13 pan for my family of 6. NOTHING IS LEFT! Will make again soon! Thank you for sharing!
Those sound like awesome substitutions. My hubby doesn’t like sausage very much so I should do this with beef as well!