One-Pot Ziti with Italian Sausage and 3 kinds of cheese makes a delicious weeknight meal and there’s hardly any clean-up at all. As a bonus, you can have this meal made start to finish in about 30 minutes.
Easy Clean-up
The ziti gets cooked right in the pot with the sauce, so there’s no need to clean a separate pot.
The sauce has plenty of tomato flavor from diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. I like to use sweet Italian sausage and then add just a few red pepper flakes to give the sauce just a little spice.
Mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and Ricotta cheese give One Pot Ziti tons of cheesy flavor.
Equipment Needed For One-Pot Ziti
To make One Pot Ziti, I used my brand new Le Creuset Dutch Oven . I am in love with this pot. Isn’t the color gorgeous? Le Creuset products are extremely high quality and they retain heat really well, cooking your food evenly every time. They are pots you will keep for a lifetime. You can use any Dutch oven or large pot with a heavy bottom.
How To Make Spicy
If you want your ziti to be spicy, double the amount of crushed red pepper flakes.
More Amazing Pasta Recipes
- Slow Cooker Crack Chicken Pasta
- Creamy Cajun Sausage Pasta
- Spaghetti Casserole
- Italian Sausage Manicotti
- Crock Pot Baked Ziti
- Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage
One-Pot Ziti with Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage,, casings removed if in casings
- 1/2 a medium yellow onion,, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic,, minced
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 cups uncooked ziti
- 1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 pound whole-milk mozzarella cheese,, cut into small cubes
- 1 cup (8 ounces) ricotta cheese
Instructions
- Place sausage in a Dutch oven and cook over medium-high heat, breaking sausage up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Once sausage is about halfway cooked, add onion. Cook 2 to 3 more minutes and add garlic. Cook 1 minute.
- Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and red pepper flakes. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add water and ziti. Stir well to get the ziti submerged. Cook 8 to 10 minutes or until pasta is almost al dente. (You still want it fairly firm because it will continue to cook for a while longer.)
- Remove Dutch oven from heat. Stir in Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. With a spoon, dollop ricotta cheese on top. Place Dutch oven in oven under the broiler until cheese on top is hot and melted.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Originally posted January 17, 2016.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Fantastic. I’ve been making ziti for my husband for decades and this is his favorite, mine too. Very savory and fresh
Did you cover during broil?
Best baked ziti ever.
It definitely needs more seasoning, but it also could’ve been the tomato sauce that I used. I will be using a different type with more seasoning and I think it would be perfect. I used a full 15 ounce container of ricotta, you can never have too much. The recipe took about 30 minutes, and plenty for leftovers the next day. I’m calling it a win.!!