Best-Ever Baked Rigatoni
Baked Rigatoni is full of zesty meat, tender noodles and lots of cheese! Super simple and incredibly delicious, this is the ultimate repletion food!
Turn this hearty dish into a wonderful meal and serve it with some of my favorite sides: cheesy garlic bread, asparagus with bacon and Italian chopped salad!
Baked Rigatoni
Baked Rigatoni is like taking the weightier parts of lasagna and spaghetti and putting them together. What you get is a magical hearty, cheesy dish! Everyone loves baked rigatoni! With tons of cheese, zesty marinara sauce and tender noodles, it is just so good! This is truly one of those repletion foods that fills you up both tummy and soul! Baked rigatoni is a meal everyone loves to come home to and will readily devour.
Rigatoni is named for the noodles typically used in this Italian dish. Rigatoni noodles are large, round, and have ridges that help to hold in all that saucy goodness. They are a larger hollow noodle too which makes it wonderful as will fill with the meaty sauce and cheese. Do not get it tumbled with ziti which is smaller and does not have ridges or penne which is cut on a diagonal. Baked Rigatoni makes a large amount, so come hungry!
What You Need For Rigatoni
Amazing ingredients on their own, combine to create an incredible homecooked Italian dish. Check out the recipe vellum for word-for-word measurements!
- Rigatoni: Melt the pasta al dente for weightier results.
- Olive Oil: The perfect oil to melt with for this Italian dish.
- Small Onion: Finely chopped, to add texture and a tasty dial of flavor!
- Garlic: Minced to add succulent savory savor throughout the rigatoni.
- Ground Beef: I went for lean ground beef.
- Ground Sausage: Using Italian sausage adds a nice bit of spice and flavor.
- Italian Seasoning: A unconfined combination of spices and herbs.
- Salt and Pepper: Add to taste.
- Marinara: Use your favorite jarred sauce or plane largest make your own, it is so easy and delicious!
- Mozzarella: Use freshly shredded mozzarella over pre-shredded.
- Parmesan: Finely grated for an uneaten sprinkle of savory flavor!
- Chopped Basil: This is optional but adds unconfined flavor. I love topping homemade Italian dishes with fresh herbs!
Making Baked Rigatoni Pasta
You melt the meat and onions and sauce all in the same pan. It makes wind-up a breeze! Baked rigatoni is the easy weeknight dinner you’ve been looking for.
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9×13 inch sultry dish and set aside. In a large pot bring water to a swash and melt the rigatoni equal to package directions.
- Saute Vegetables: In a medium sized saucepan over medium upper heat add the olive oil, onions and garlic. Saute until tender.
- Brown Meat: Add in the ground whinge and sausage and melt and crumble until no longer pink.
- Simmer the Sauce: Add in the Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste, and marinara sauce. Reduce heat and let simmer.
- Drain Pasta: Drain the pasta and then return to the large pot. Add the meat sauce to the pot and stir until combined.
- Layer: Spread half of the pasta in the marrow of your 9×13 inch dish. Then layer with half of the pasta.
- Repeat: Layer with half of the cheeses. Repeat with remaining pasta and cheese.
- Bake: Cover with aluminum foil and then torch for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and torch for an spare 15-20 minutes or until bubbly.
Tips For The Weightier Baked Rigatoni
Rigatoni is a simple dish, but you can jazz it up with these few simple tips.
- Noodles: Rigatoni is the noodle of nomination for this casserole, but you can use other noodles in a pinch. Try to use similar type of noodle. For example rotini, penne, fusilli or large shell pasta. Whichever noodle you use melt the noodles al dente. This helps the noodles swizzle the sauce.
- Fresh Cheese: It is weightier if you can shred your own cheese, it will melt much easier and taste better. Pre-shredded cheese often comes with anti-caking teachers that prevent it from melting the same and can yo-yo the taste.
- Meat: You can use uneaten lean ground whinge so it isn’t overly greasy. If you find you have a lot of grease in the pan without you melt it. Remove the meat and phlebotomize the grease into a can or something you can throw yonder once the grease has solidified. Do not pour the grease lanugo the sink. It is bad for your pipes. Then when in the meat and protract as directed.
- Add a little Heat: You can make your baked rigatoni a bit increasingly zesty by using a spicy Italian sausage, or you can add red pepper flakes to taste.
- Add Vegetables: This is a unconfined dish to add vegetables to or hibernate them in. Zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, or spinach.
Make Superiority and Freeze!
This is one of those wondrous recipes that you can make superiority of time and it will unquestionably taste largest without it has sit and the flavors have melded together.
- Make Ahead: Make the baked rigatoni equal to directions but do not torch it. Tightly imbricate and refrigerate for up to 24 hours surpassing baking. Let the 9×13 pan sit for well-nigh 20 min surpassing baking.
- Freeze: If you want to you can plane freeze the rigatoni surpassing it is baked or without for up to 3 months. If you don’t torch it let it thaw overnight in the fridge or on the counter for a few hours. Torch as directed, checking to make sure it is washed-up in the middle. It may need increasingly time. If you have baked it, simply thaw and reheat in the oven or microwave.
- Leftovers: This makes a large dish, so you can feed a prod or have leftovers. I have to say leftovers taste plane largest than when it is fresh. There is just something well-nigh Italian supplies that is unchangingly largest the second day. Leftovers can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave.
More Pasta Dishes to Fall in Love With
Pasta is one of the weightier repletion foods there is, it’s filling, and incredibly versatile. Combine it with all sorts of variegated sauces and meats to create marvelous dishes! Pasta comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes and is so fun to melt with. So when you need a pasta fix reach for some of these divine recipes, they are all delectable.
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The Weightier Manicotti EVER!
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Creamy Bacon Carbonara
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Baked Rigatoni
Ingredients
- 16 ounce rigatoni pasta
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 small onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 pound ground sausage
- 1 Tablespoon italian seasoning
- salt and pepper
- 2 (24 ounce jars) marinara sauce or Homemade Marinara
- 16 ounce mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese shredded
- chopped basil for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 inch sultry dish and set aside. In a large pot bring water to a swash and melt the rigatoni equal to package directions.
- In a medium sized sauce pan over medium upper heat add the olive oil, onions and garlic. Sauté until tender.
- Add in the ground whinge and sausage and melt and crumble until no longer pink.
- Add in the italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste, and marinara sauce. Reduce heat and let simmer.
- Drain the pasta and return to the large pot. Add the meat sauce to the pot and stir until combined.
- Spread half of the pasta in the marrow of your 9×13 inch dish. Layer with half of the pasta.
- Layer with half of the cheeses. Repeat with remaining pasta and cheese.
- Cover with aluminum foil and torch for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and torch for an spare 15-20 minutes or until bubbly.
