| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 10 min |
| Prep: | 20 min |
| Cook: | 50 min |
| Yield: | 6 to 8 servings |
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 10 min |
| Prep: | 20 min |
| Cook: | 50 min |
| Yield: | 6 to 8 servings |
Ingredients
- Salt
- 1 pound ziti
- 1 pound hot Italian turkey sausage, casing removed
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 6 ounces pesto
- 15 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1 (9-ounce) package washed spinach
- Butter, for baking dish
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella, plus more for topping
- 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan, plus more for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add ziti and cook until al dente. Drain in a colander.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, saute turkey sausage. Add onion and garlic and saute until the sausage is cooked through. Use your spoon to break up the sausage while it cooks. Add the can of diced tomatoes and pesto and let simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the ricotta cheese, spinach, Parmesan and mozzarella to a large bowl, and stir to combine.
- Butter a 4-quart baking dish, add the cooked pasta, then sausage mixture and cheese mixture. Top with a sprinkling of mozzarella and Parmesan.
- Bake until completely heated through and golden and crisp on top, about 20 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 723 |
| Total Fat | 37 g |
| Saturated Fat | 18 g |
| Carbohydrates | 54 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Sugar | 5 g |
| Protein | 43 g |
| Cholesterol | 124 mg |
| Sodium | 1193 mg |
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 723 |
| Total Fat | 37 g |
| Saturated Fat | 18 g |
| Carbohydrates | 54 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Sugar | 5 g |
| Protein | 43 g |
| Cholesterol | 124 mg |
| Sodium | 1193 mg |
Reviews
Really good! My favorite part was the spinach, ricotta and generous mozzarella on top, melty, crispy and amazing. I felt like the sauce with sausage needed some work though, a more robust tomato sauce to coat the pasta. The pesto did nothing for me, I’d rather just go with a good amount of fresh basil in the sauce. Still tasty and a good base recipe 🙂
My family’s favorite ziti recipe. I made this for my church family of 125 and they all loved it too.
This is a great baked pasta recipe…My 20 year old son raved for days, I will make this again before he returns to college!
I found this recipe few years ago. Everyone loved it…..I made it again the same results. I will making it again this New Years Eve. But I didn’t put all the Spinach as directed. Thank for this recipe.
This is by far my favorite ziti recipe. I have made it so many times I lost count. It reheats very well and is super easy to make.
This is not baked ziti! The cheese to sauce to noodle ratio is completely off. The pesto and cheese are completely overpowering. My cheese-loving family tried to cut it down with additional noodles and sauce. It tasted more like a very bad lasagna. I will never make this again.
Holy cow, this is a great recipe. I have made it several times now, served it to guests and I make up a batch so I can have something great to reheat for myself anytime I want. I could not find Ziti pasta locally (I live in a small town) so I used something that looked like Ziti and of course it worked fine~~I didn’t change anything because I am not a good cook (I’m a baker) so I’m glad the recipe works as written. Thanks~~
Very good dish. My husband and I give it 5 stars. I added more seasoning to the meat sauce, oregano,crushed pepper flake, salt and pepper. I also added fresh portobello mushrooms. I lightened it up a bit buy cutting back on the mozzarella and ricotta. It wasn’t missed. Could easily me made without the meat. I would just add more mushrooms.. Will be making this one again and again.
Really good! I had about 3/4 cup of leftover red sauce in my fridge and threw that in as well with some red pepper flakes. I gave leftovers to two different neighbors and they both really enjoyed it.
Plain, followed the recipe exactly and needs more seasoning.