Why It Works
- Soaking the pasta in water before adding it to the pan with the sauce cuts down on its total cooking time, while adding virtually no extra work for you.
- Cooking everything in the same skillet means fewer pans to clean up.
- Cubed mozzarella stirred into the dish creates pockets of gooey cheese.
Nothing says comfort to me like a nice baked pasta dish loaded with creamy sauce and cheese, and while California winters ain't exactly the kind that screams out for rib-sticking food, there's something about October that just makes me crave it no matter what the weather is like.
The other day, I was in the supermarket in the dried pasta section and noticed that Barilla has a product on the market that they're calling "Barilla Pronto." It's pasta that's designed to be cooked directly in the pot with the sauce, no separate boiling required. But here's the thing: This method already works with any pasta you pick up from the shelf. Either the folks at Barilla have solved a problem that didn't exist, or they're just really good at marketing their existing products.
If my full-fledgedNo-Boil Baked Zitiis the completist,Super Mario 3version of the dish, this skillet ziti is like using the magic whistle to jump straight to World 8. Not quite as satisfying, but a great alternative if time is of the essence.
For a Quicker Cook, Soak the Pasta First
Skillet pasta dishes are already shortcuts, but there aren't any rules against taking cuts that cut your shortcuts even shorter, right?
There are a few tricks to making the best skillet-baked ziti. The first is to abandon the idea of cooking the ziti 100% from scratch in the pan. I find that even with the most carefully tested recipes, it's really difficult to gauge exactly how much liquid that ziti is gonna absorb as it cooks in the pan—and starting with enough liquid to fully cook it makes for a dangerously loose mixture that's a pain in the butt to stir without splashing sauce all over your countertop.
Instead, I employ the same method I use when making virtually any baked pasta dish: soaking the pasta while I prepare the sauce. If I place the pasta in a bowl of salted water, stir it once with my hands, then let it rest while I cook my sauce, it will have already absorbed virtually all of the liquid that it's going to absorb by the time I'm ready to drain it and add it to the pot. At that point, all I have to do is cook it through in my finished sauce, a process that takes just moments. This method shaves at least 10 minutes off of our total time in the kitchen.
Making the Sauce With Italian Sausage
If you want to keep things totally simple and vegetarian here, you can make a sauce with canned tomatoes, some aromatics, and some cream. Baking ziti in the oven gives you plenty of textural and flavor contrast in the form of crisp browned bits along the top edges of the baking dish. Skillet baked ziti doesn't have this advantage, so I like to up the flavor and texture by starting my sauce with some Italian sausage that I cook in a mixture of olive oil and butter just until its pink color goes away. (Preventing it from really browning ensures that it stays tender as it cooks.)
Next I add my aromatics: onions and garlic, cooked until soft and fragrant, followed by some dried oregano and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Finally, I add a mixture of crushed canned whole peeled tomatoes (I use 42 ounces of tomatoes total, reserving about three-quarters of a cup to spoon over the dish before finishing), heavy cream, and a touch of chicken stock or water.
How to Get the Cheesiest Skillet Baked Ziti
I drain my soaked pasta, then add it to the pot. At this stage, the pasta is already rehydrated; all we need to do is set its structure by cooking it, so it's essential to work pretty quickly. After the pasta come a few dollops of high-quality ricotta (avoid any brands that list gums or stabilizers among their ingredients), followed by some cubes of low-moisture mozzarella. I like to stir the cubes into the pasta so that they melt as the pasta cooks, creating pockets of gooey, stretchy cheese in the finished dish.
After stirring it all together, I finally top the dish with some more of my crushed tomatoes, a few more dollops of ricotta, some more cubes of mozzarella, and a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan. I reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting, cover the pan, and let it cook for just three minutes, at which point the pasta is ready. Letting it rest off-heat for about five minutes longer ensures that the cheese is nicely melted.
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Top it off with a grating of more fresh Parmesan and a sprinkle of parsley, and we're ready for dinner. Nowthat'swhat I callpronto!
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Just look at those cheese strands! Look at them! The only downside of this whole thing is that it turns a rare treat-style dish into easily achievable weeknight fare. Looks like I'm gonna have to start exercising a bit more this winter—and no,Super Mariodoesn't count as exercise.
October 2015
Recipe Details
Easy Skillet Baked Ziti With Sausage and Ricotta Recipe
Active20 mins
Total30 mins
Serves6to 8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry ziti, penne, or other tubular pasta
- Kosher salt
- 1 (28-ounce) can plus 1 (14-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock, or water
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, removed from casing
- 1 large onion, finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced (about 4 teaspoons)
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup finely minced fresh parsley leaves, divided
- 12 ounces high-quality ricotta cheese (see notes)
- 1 pound low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 3 ounces roughly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, divided
Directions
Place pasta in a large bowl and cover with hot water. Season generously with salt. Let rest, stirring twice during the first 10 minutes, while you prepare the other ingredients.
Use a hand blender or countertop blender to process tomatoes until mostly smooth, but still a little chunky. Set aside 3/4 cup of tomatoes. Combine remaining tomatoes, heavy cream, and chicken stock in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and set aside.
Heat oil and butter in a large straight-sided sauté pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, swirling, until butter is mostly melted. Add sausage and cook, mashing with a potato masher or a whisk, until sausage is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add onion and garlic, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add oregano, red pepper flakes, and half of parsley and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add tomato and cream mixture to pan with sausage. Drain noodles in a large colander set in the sink, then add to pan and stir to combine. Stir in half of ricotta, then rapidly stir in half of mozzarella cheese. (Do not over-stir, or the mixture will stretch and stick to your spoon.) Spoon reserved 3/4 cup tomatoes over top of pasta. Dollop with remaining ricotta and scatter remaining mozzarella over top. Sprinkle with half of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Cover and cook over the lowest possible heat for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest, covered, for 5 minutes.
Uncover, sprinkle with remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano and parsley, and serve immediately.
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Special Equipment
Hand blender or countertop blender, 5-quart straight-sided sauté pan or Dutch oven
Notes
Look for ricotta that has no gums or stabilizers and lists only milk, salt, and either an acid or a starter culture on the label. Our favorite nationally available store brand is Calabro.
Read More
- The Food Lab's No-Boil Baked Ziti
- Baked Ziti With Two Mozzarellas and Parmesan Cream Sauce
