I love a good skillet meal, and especially one that can all be made in one pot. The pasta in this Skillet Baked Ziti cooks right in the pan and then it’s popped in the oven at the very end to melt the gooey cheese topping. This family friendly dinner is great served with a side salad and a slice of garlic bread. It’s one of my kids all-time favorites!
Ingredients and Equipment Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- Italian sausage – Pork, turkey, sweet (mild), hot (spicy), links in casings, or packaged in bulk, it will all work here! You can also choose to make this meatless and skip the sausage entirely.
- Whole peeled tomatoes – This recipe calls for using whole tomatoes, pulsed in a food processor (or very carefully in a blender) as opposed to a can of crushed tomatoes. The recipe comes from Cook’s Illustrated, and there’s always a method to the madness there. That being said, if you have a can of crushed tomatoes and want to use that, go for it.
- Olive oil
- Fresh garlic
- Red pepper flakes – This is not a spicy dish. The red pepper flakes add a nice kick of flavor without being spicy, but honestly I often leave them out!
- Salt
- Ziti – This is a tube-shaped variety of pasta, but you could certainly sub in a different kind if needed. Anything with little ridges is great because they help hold onto the sauce.
- Heavy cream – Cream adds richness, depth, and substance to the sauce.
- Parmesan cheese
- Fresh basil leaves – fresh is best, but if you need to sub dried, use a heaping tablespoon of dried basil and add it in with the tomatoes.
- Ground black pepper
- Mozzarella cheese – Shredded. I recommend whole milk mozzarella.
- Large skillet with lid – You’ll want a 12-inch diameter pan, minimum, and I recommend one with taller sides (as opposed to say, a shallow pan you would use to fry eggs) Pick a pan that can go from the stovetop to the oven to save on dishes. If you don’t have one, you can always transfer it to a baking dish or even just put the lid on and let it sit on the stovetop to melt the cheese. This is one I use. You could easily make this in more like a dutch oven style pot as well.
How to Make Skillet Baked Ziti
- Remove sausage from casings if using link sausage and cook until browned. Add a generous amount of fresh garlic and some red pepper flakes.
- After those sauté for a minute, add some canned tomatoes. Then add some water; this is the cooking liquid for the pasta.
- You’ll want to cover it up to trap in that moisture at this point so the pasta can cook. Pop the lid on, but peek in frequently and stir things around. You’ll see the pasta isn’t completely submerged in the liquid so that’s why it takes longer than just boiling pasta in water. It will absorb almost all of the cooking liquid.
- When the pasta is tender, add in a little cream and freshly grated parmesan cheese.
- Then it’s all finished off with some fresh basil and mozzarella cheese and then placed in the oven just to melt it all together. Pair it with a simple salad for a filling, balanced dinner. It would even be totally appropriate for company. Everyone loves a good Italian dish!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store finished baked ziti in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-5 days for best results.
- To make this meal even easier, pair it with a bagged salad and some Make-Ahead Garlic Bread.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this gluten-free?
Yep- Sub in your favorite gluten-free pasta!
Can I make this ahead of time?
For serving as a family meal I prefer to eat this fresh, but the leftovers are great reheated for lunch throughout the week.
Can I make this dairy-free?
I’m sure this would still be good if you needed to leave out the cream. Sub in your favorite melty dairy-free cheese!
Skillet Baked Ziti
This Skillet Baked Ziti is a fantastic one-dish dinner that your whole family will adore!
Servings servings
Equipment
- Extra Large Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage or Italian turkey sausage “hot” or “sweet”
- 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 medium garlic cloves minced or pressed (about 2 tablespoons)
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Salt
- 3 cups water
- 12 ounces ziti pasta about 3 ¾ cups
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 ounce parmesan cheese grated (½ cup)
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves fresh is best, but if you need to sub dried, use a heaping tablespoon of dried basil and add it in with the tomatoes
- ground black pepper
- 4 ounces mozzarella cheese shredded (1 cup)
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 475℉. Pulse the tomatoes with their juice in a food processor until coarsely ground and no large pieces remain, about 6-12 pulses. (Alternately I sometimes use my blender- just be super careful to not overblend. It only takes a couple pulses in a high powered blender!)
- Heat 12-inch or larger oven-safe skillet to medium high heat and add ½ tablespoon olive oil. Remove sausage from casings and cook, crumbling with a spatula until browned and cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. (If you're not using sausage, just add a little more olive oil and start with the next step, sauteing the garlic and pepper flakes.)
- Add garlic and red pepper flakes to sausage and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the processed tomatoes and ½ teaspoon salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes no longer taste raw, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in the water, then add the pasta. Cover, increase the heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring often and adjusting the heat to maintain a vigorous simmer, until the pasta ins tender, 15-18 minutes.
- Stir in the cream, Parmesan, and basil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the cheese has melted and browned, 10-15 minutes (or just until melted, like, 1-2 minutes). Serve.
Notes
- This recipe is to be cooked in a 12 inch skillet. I recommend using one slightly larger if you’re adding the sausage as well. Make sure your skillet is oven proof (no plastic handles) and has a lid.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within 3-5 days for best results.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.25recipe, Calories: 521kcal, Carbohydrates: 53g, Protein: 26g, Fat: 23g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 7g, Cholesterol: 81mg, Sodium: 1102mg, Potassium: 578mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 8g, Vitamin A: 798IU, Vitamin C: 37mg, Calcium: 244mg, Iron: 10mg
Calories: 521kcal
Cost: $14
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Questions & Reviews
I made this two nights ago and my husband is still talking about how god it was. I will definitely be making this again! Yummy!
My family quickly declared this to be a new favorite! Thanks for the great recipe!
This was totally awesome! I think it might be my new favorite dinner. I didn’t have a skillet big enough to cook the noodles in the same pan, so I just did them separate, and added them to the sauce. We loved it!
I made this last night. It was so tasty. Even my picky nieces, who will eat nothing, enjoyed this meal. It feed 4 adults and 3 kids with leftovers. Will be making this again for sure!!
I just made this for our dinner tonight and my samplings reveal it’s delicious. Unfortunately though it’s super liquidy…almost soup like. I’m guessing this is something related to the fact that everything I bake here (I recently moved to Orlando, FL) requires more flour. I haven’t figured it out yet but every thing I make here requires at least an extra cup of flour. I’ve lived all across the country and find each recipe turns out differently even when I follow the instructions to the T! The recipe was great, I’ll just remember next time to use half as much water.
That may have been confusing–I realize this recipe doesn’t require flour. I’m just saying that everything here requires less liquid. I’m not crazy, I promise! 🙂
Made this last night and it was great! Question though, is there any reason you can’t just use crushed tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes? It would save another step and one less thing to clean. Thanks!
Glad you liked it Christy! Check out the paragraph in the post right above the pic where I put in the tomatoes. I address this very issue 🙂
Sorry I missed that! I actually looked at the photo and thought, that looks just like a can of crushed tomatoes, lol!
So I did some checking on this issue. Here is a quote from an article from Cook’s Illustrated:In the test kitchen, we’ve often avoided using crushed tomatoes because the differences among leading brands are so dramatic. The textures vary from watery and thin to so thick you could stand a spoon in it. You might get peels or no peels; plentiful seeds or none; big, rough-cut chunks of tomato or a smooth, sauce-like consistency with no chunks at all.
So they did a taste test and here are three that came up as recommended and are names that I recognize from the store:
Muir Glen Organic Crushed Tomatoes
Hunts Organic Crushed Tomatoes
Progressive Crushed Tomatoes with added puree
Hope this makes this dish even easier to make than it already is!
Is it supposed to read ‘remove sausage from casings’? Looks good, whatever…
Yes, that’s correct. You don’t want to cook giant links of sausage, you want crumbled sausage, so you have to remove the casings they come in.
Yum! I have a pound of bulk hot Italian sausage in my fridge right now! Dinner 😉
Made this for dinner tonight and it’s made the family favorites list! I even used substitutes for just about everything and it was still amazing!
Oh YUM! One dish – sold. Pasta & cheese – double sold! LOL Thanks, ladies! Looks fantastic.