Baked Ziti with Sausage Recipe - Savory Nothings (2024)

With a homemade meat sauce, a creamy layer and plenty of cheese, this Baked Ziti pasta casserole is one of those meals you’ll want to make again and again! It’s easy to prep ahead and reheat – and it freezes really well, too.

There are days you barely have the headspace to spend five minutes in the kitchen… And those are the days you make a quick one pot Italian sausage pasta… Or Baked Ziti in the instant pot! And then there’s the days you feel like something more. Something with bubbly layers of cheese. And that’s when you make Baked Ziti with Sausage.

No, it’s not the easiest, throw-together dinner. But no, it’s also not the hardest. And as a bonus, it’s easy to double the recipe and freeze one pan for later.

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Sausage: I recommend using Italian sausage for this recipe. You can also use a different coarse pork sausage if that’s what you have on hand, the flavor will be slightly different. Mild or hot sausage is up to your taste. You can also use ground beef or turkey in place of the sausage if you prefer.
• Sauce: I used a jarred tomato basil sauce, but if you want to make this all from scratch – feel free to use canned diced tomatoes. Season it more and leave it to simmer for at least 30 minutes.
• Cream cheese: I chose cream cheese here because it’s cheaper and more readily available. If you want to go all out, feel free to use ricotta! You can also replace half of the cream cheese with light sour cream OR Greek Yogurt for a lightened up version.
• Pasta: You can really use any long, tubular pasta shape. I always try to buy actual Ziti, because otherwise… My family complains, ha!

Step by step photos

To make the components of the ziti bake:

To layer the baked ziti:

Recipe tips

• Cook the pasta just al-dente, otherwise it will get too mushy in the bake.
• If you forgot to reserve pasta cooking water, just use warm water or chicken stock instead.
• I recommend dicing the vegetables fairly small, otherwise you’ll end up with huge chunks in the bake – not very pleasant to eat.
• If your skillet isn’t quite wide enough to comfortably sauté a lot of food, remove the sausage after browning and sauté the vegetables by themselves first. Add the sausage back in when you add the tomato sauce.
• Don’t worry if you get the layering mixed up – at the end of the day, you just have to cram everything into your baking dish, cover it in cheese and shove it in the oven ?

Recipe FAQ:

Serving suggestions

We like a nice big green salad on the side with our ziti casserole. I like to dress it in Balsamic Vinaigrette or White Balsamic Vinaigrette because they go so well with Italian food. Or at least pretend-Italian, I certainly didn’t consult any Italians when I made this recipe ?

More casserole recipes

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Printable recipe