Baked Rigatoni

Casseroles are a staple of Weeknight cooking. When you add in making your own meat sauce, you are achieving Homemade on a Weeknight. This recipe for Baked Rigatoni is loaded with three cheese, ground pork, pasta, and a homemade tomato sauce, all baked to perfection.

I know it is typically Baked Ziti, but I like the slightly bigger pasta shape as well as the grooves versus the smoothness of ziti. All that said, if you want to use ziti in this recipe it will be just fine. You will need to reduce the time spent on precooking of the pasta if you go with ziti over Rigatoni. I use ground pork out of preference for this recipe – you can use ground beef, turkey or chicken. I also used beef broth (again preference), you can use vegetable or chicken broth. You an also just use water if you prefer – but it is an opportunity missed for adding flavor. You need that extra liquid in the sauce so that the pasta can finish cooking while the casserole is baking.

It’s important to use shredded parmesan over grated for this recipe. While it may not seem like a big difference it actually is when it comes to the what it melts. That said – if you only have grated parmesan than use that. I also suggest using whole milk ricotta. It gives a richer deeper flavor to the cheese layer.

I served this up with some of my Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Discard Focaccia mostly because my family loves any excuse I have to make it. I think any type of Garlic bread would do well. You could also go with a salad- probably a simple Cesar Salad to do the best. It is a pretty hearty casserole so you may not need a side. But it also keeps really well for lunch the next day, so if you are wanting to have some leftovers, you might want the bread and salad.

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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Baked Rigatoni

A homemade meat sauce loaded with a ricotta mixture and lots of melty cheese.

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Keyword baked pasta, ground pork, ground pork recipes, meat sauce, mozzarella, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, red sauce, ricotta, rigatoni, rigatoni pasta

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 6

Equipment

• 1 13×9 Glass Baking Dish

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Oil
• ½ White Onion minced
• 1 tbsp Minced Garlic
• 1½ lb Ground Pork
• 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning see recipe below
• 2 15oz cans Tomato Sauce
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 2 cups Beef Broth
• 1 lb Rigatoni
• 12 oz Ricotta
• 1 Egg beaten
• 1½ cup Mozzarella Cheese shredded, divided
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese shredded, divided
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp Parsley
• 1 tsp Salt

Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

• Start water boiling for pasta (salt as desired) Preheat oven to 375degF
• In a saute pan over medium high heat, add oil onions and garlic. Let saute for 3 minutes then add ground pork and italian seasoning. Cook until no longer pink and add tomato sauce, honey and beef broth. Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer until pasta is ready.
• Add pasta to water and cook for 10 minutes (pasta will not be cooked through). Drain in colander and return to pot.
• In a small bowl combine ricotta cheese, ½ cup mozzarella cheese, ½ cup parmesan cheese, salt, garlic powder and parsley.
• Add sauce to pasta in pot in toss to coat. Put half of the mixture into the bottom of the glass baking dish.
• Dollop ricotta mixture evenly over pasta. Then add remaining pasta mixture and spread out evenly. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Cover with foil.
• Place in oven to bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.