Cheesy Baked Rigatoni
This cheesy baked rigatoni is so easy to make, and so full of delicious flavors! It’s a main dish full of cheesy goodness!
I have definitely been in a bit of a dinner rut lately, and we’ve mostly been eating out of the freezer for the last few weeks. It’s great that we are using up all of the meals I’ve prepared (and I’m excited to re-stock the freezer with lots of good stuff!) but I’ve gotten out of the habit of planning meals and usually end up just pulling odds and ends out of the freezer at dinner time.
This week I actually felt like cooking for the first time in a long while, and all I could think about was how delicious a big plate of cheesy pasta sounded. Yum! I’ve made this baked spaghetti recipe lots of times, and it’s always a family favorite, but I decided to mix things up a little this time and try it with rigatoni. It turned out totally delicious! This baked rigatoni has layers of tender pasta, cheesy ricotta, savory meat sauce, and mozzarella cheese. It’s a delicious combination of flavors and textures, and comfort food at its best!
You could definitely use a different shape of pasta with this, like penne or macaroni (or whatever you like!). And if you’d like to make a meatless version, you could sauté some peppers and mushrooms with the onions, then add the spaghetti sauce to it. This recipe is pretty adaptable to whatever you have on hand, so feel free to mix and match with whatever you like. Don’t skimp on the cheese, though!
Baked Rigatoni
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound rigatoni cooked according to package directions
- 1 pound ground turkey or ground beef
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 24 ounce jar spaghetti sauce
- 30 ounces ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 4 cups shredded mozzarella divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. In a large skillet, cook the ground meat, onions, and garlic until the meat is browned and the onions are translucent. Add the spaghetti sauce and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat. In a medium bowl, mix together the ricotta, eggs, salt, pepper, and parmesan. Toss the rigatoni with the ricotta mixture.
- Spread half of the rigatoni in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Spread half of the meat sauce mixture over the top of the rigatoni. Sprinkle two cups of mozzarella over the top. Repeat with the remaining rigatoni and meat sauce, then top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Cover and bake 30 minutes, then remove the cover and bake an additional ten minutes.
