Baked Rigatoni Recipe

5 from 4 votes

This cheesy baked rigatoni is layered with rigatoni, ricotta cheese, ground sweet Italian sausage and beef, fresh mozzarella, and topped with fresh chopped basil and parmesan cheese.

Prep Time15

Cook Time35

Total Time50

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Author: Shawn Williams

Ingredients

1 pound of rigatoni or ziti
1 pound ground sweet Italian sausage
1/2 pound 85% lean ground beef
24 ounces marinara or tomato sauce
15 ounces ricotta cheese softened
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese cut into bite-sized cubes
1/3 + 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese divided
6-7 basil leaves chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Bring a large pot of water with a big pinch of salt to a boil. Cook pasta al dente, strain, and transfer to a bowl or back into the boiling pot once it's cooled. Stir in 1/3 cup parmesan cheese and 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce. Mix and set aside.
Meanwhile, bring oil in a large pan or skillet to medium heat. Cook sausage and beef until browned and fully cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. Use the tip of your spatula to break the sausage and beef into small chunks. Season with salt and pepper, to taste and set aside.
Take half of the pasta and layer filling the entire bottom of a 13X9 casserole or baking dish. Layer with half of the beef and sausage mix, and then half of the ricotta cheese. Spread the ricotta with a rubber spatula, doing your best to spread it thinly and evenly. It will tend to stick. It's best to work in small dollops and spread as best you can. It does not need to be perfect!
Repeat step 4 with the remaining ingredients. Pasta, sausage/beef, and ricotta.
Layer top with 1 cup of marinara. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15 minutes uncovered.
Remove from the oven, top with a layer of 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and all the fresh mozzarella. Bake for 20-25 additional minutes or until cheese is fully melted and starting to turn golden. Sometimes a 2-minute broil at the very end will help deliver a perfect golden singe. Let cool for 10 minutes, top with basil, and serve cut in squares.

Notes

Ground sweet Italian sausage is one of my favorite additions to any pasta dish. This recipe calls for 1 pound of sweet Italian sausage and 1/2 a pound of ground beef. You can make the same recipe with up to 2 pounds of meat if you want a little more protein. A 50-50 split, all beef, or all sausage works and is totally up to preference.

The dish is baked for about 35 minutes to heat everything and melt the cheesy topping. I usually opt for baking 15 minutes without the cheese topping and then 20-25 minutes with the final cheese topping. This prevents too much charring and burning of the cheese.

If you don't have rigatoni, any straight tubular pasta will work for this recipe. Rigatoni is my favorite but ziti, penne, mezzi rigatoni, or similar will all work too.

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