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
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Originally posted January 17, 2016.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Delicious! I followed the recipe exactly and it was absolutely perfect!
I made this dish, but substituted a jar of spaghetti sauce and enough water to cover the ziti. made it in winter so I put it in the oven, covered at 375 for an hour, then added additional cheese on top and cooked it uncovered an aadditional 15 min to brown the cheese. Perfection!!
Very good
I used ground chuck in place of sausage. Like someone above mentioned, I too, drained it before adding the tomatoes, etc. We are not Ricotta (nor cottage cheese) fans, so we just omitted that all together.
I have no idea how the author would manage to cook the Ziti in with the rest, and not have a soupy disaster?
Right after I added the tomatoes,etc, I boiled my salted water for the Ziti. When the water was ready, I then cooked the noodles, and they were ready in time to simmer a bit with the rest (meat, tomatoes, etc) and then stir in/top with cheeses (YUM )
Maybe not one pot, but still a great recipe!
Wow! I am glad that I read your reply because at the top it says to cook the ziti in the sauce. No need to dirty up another pot. Thank you!
Hi, I followed the recipe exactly but the final result was super watery, almost like a stew.
I had to scoop a bunch of sauce out to remedy it and placed it in the oven to finish baking so the liquid would evaporate.
Did I do something wrong here?
From the directions it makes it sound as tho you add the water and pasta to the Dutch oven; however, I’m not sure that’s the intention. I will cook my pasta separate and add my drained al dente pasta to my Dutch over. The pasta will not absorb all that water. I just this she missed that step or assumed people would know to cook the pasta separate.
Wow! I am glad that I read your reply because at the top it says to cook the ziti in the sauce. No need to dirty up another pot.
Awesome my fa.ily loved it !! Easy to make ..
I used ground chuck instead and drained it before adding tomatoes. Added a little Worcestershire sauce to give a little kick. Only had mozzarella and provolone cheese on hand. It came out amazing!!!
what size dutch oven please?
Following
I cooked this in a 5.5 quart dutch oven
Great recipe! I have made this 3-4 times already. I could not find ziti the first time so I used penne. Then the next time I just had mini penne on hand and used that. Turned out great and I liked the mini penne even more for some reason. Great find that has made its way into regular rotation
In the ziti can you leave out meat,onion,red pepper?
Christin,
Amazing job with this recipe. My wife and I made it last night and it came out great! The kids couldn’t get enough 😀
really does look wonderful, makin it tonite
Excellent! Husband loves it. Not a simple recipe but desidely delicious!
Ziti is a BIG favorite in my house, so I have a feeling this one-pot ziti would be a surefire WINNER around here! It looks so cheesy and amazing, Christin!
My goodness this looks incredible. I can never get too many one pot recipes! SO simple and yet so flavorful!
OMG, baked ziti is totally a favorite indulgence of mine and yours looks seriously delicious, Christin! THREE types of cheese and ready in 30 minutes?! YES! Gimme alllll the ziti! Cheers, my dear!
You had me at one pot ziti, Christin! This dish looks SO good! I wish I had a big bowl of this right now! Such perfect comfort food!
I love this one pot dish. It looks totally gobble worthy. And I am swooning over that gorgeous blue Dutch Oven you have. I just might have to get me one of those!! My birthday IS coming up after all. I am going to have to drop hints to the hubs!! 😉
This is my kind of pasta dish, Christin — I love that it’s one pot, and sausage and fresh mozzarella are favorites of mine!
Looks wonderful!I don’t have oven! Can I mix in the ricotta cheese! Or I will serve the ricotta on the side!