Baked Ziti With Meatballs

Spoon holding ziti pasta over white baking dish of the same.

5 from 2 votes

Baked Ziti With Meatballs is a quick and easy dinner recipe perfect any night of the week. With beef meatballs, pasta, and tomato sauce.

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Total Time30

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: baked ziti with meatballs

Servings:

Calories: 523kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

Meatballs

500 grams/ 16 oz beef mince (ground beef)
⅓ cup panko breadcrumbs
1 tsp garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tsp dried parsley Note 1
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 medium egg free range

Pasta sauce

700 grams/24.5 oz passata Note 2
400 grams/14 oz diced tomatoes Note 3
2 tablespoon tomato paste Note 4
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce Note 5

Pasta

4 cups dried ziti

Cheese layer

½ cup mozzarella cheese freshly grated using a hand held or box grater
½ cup colby cheese freshly grated using a hand held or box grater

Garnish (optional):

black pepper
basil leaves

Instructions

Preheat your oven: to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
Meatballs: add the beef mince, panko breadcrumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, salt, pepper and egg to a medium sized mixing bowl. Then use clean hands to combine. Next take a mini cookie scoop and portion out a small amount of the mixture. Place the portion onto a chopping board and repeat this process until all of the mixture is portioned. Then working 1 by 1 using the palms of your hand to roll the portions into meatballs.
Cook the meatballs: place a large sauté pan on the stove, turn the heat to high and add the olive oil. Working in batches use kitchen tongs to place the meatballs into the pan. Cook them, using a wooden spoon to move them around in the pan and kitchen tongs to flip to the other side. The meatballs will take 8 to 10 minutes to cook. Once cooked use a slotted spoon to remove the meatballs and place them into a paper towel lined bowl.
Ziti: read and follow the instructions on the packet to cook the ziti in a large saucepan of boiling salted water. Test a piece when almost done and if it is a little bit chewy still that will be perfect. Next use a colander to drain the ziti and discard the pasta water.
Pasta sauce: turn the heat down and use some paper towel and tongs to absorb the excess oil from the saute pan. Then without rinsing or cleaning the pan add the passata, diced tomatoes, tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce. Use a wooden spoon to give these a stir to gently combine. Note 6
Combine: add the drained hot ziti to the pasta sauce and gently stir to fold together. Then drop the meatballs into the pan and again stir to combine.
Baking dish: next transfer the combined pasta, sauce and meatballs into the greased baking dish. Use a wooden spoon to push to mix into the corners and down slightly so that it is settled in the dish.
Oven bake: place the baking dish into the oven on the middle shelf and allow it to cook for 10 to 15 minutes. During this time the cheese will melt and the dish heat through.
To serve: once the cheese has melted use oven mitts to remove the pasta bake from the oven and rest it on a heat proof surface.
Garnish: season the melted cheese layer with black pepper and then sprinkle some basil leaves over the top. Grab some bowls, forks and spoons and get ready to dive in!

Notes

Note 1 -Dried parsley: you can use dried basil, oregano or Italian seasoning in place of the dried parsley to the equivalent amount. Or you can use 2 teaspoon of fresh parsley in its place.
Note 2 - Tomato passata: thick and smooth with a robust tomato flavor. This is the key ingredient to the sauce. It is known as tomato puree in some countries.
Note 3 - Diced tomatoes: these give both a lovely flavor and texture in the recipe. Go for a plain tin with no additional herbs or spices. An alternative to these is using a tin of crushed tomatoes.
Note 4 - Tomato paste: thick and rich, this adds a lovely depth of flavor in the simple combination of ingredients used to make the ziti pasta sauce.
Note 5 - Worcestershire sauce: this dark coloured aromatic sauce is known for adding a little oomph to recipes. Give the bottle a shake before you use it as sometimes the gritty bits can sit at the base of the bottle.
Note 6 - Excess olive oil: we don't need to clean or rinse the pan after cooking the meatballs. However, as there is oil in there from cooking the meatballs we want to get this out so that it doesn't go into the sauce. So grab some paper towel and tongs and absorb the oil from the base of the pan and once done you can discard the paper towel.

Nutrition