Vegetarian Baked Ziti

Vegetarian baked ziti is one of my go-to recipes for Italian night. This baked pasta recipe is quick, easy, and delicious and makes enough to feed a crowd. And, it's another great way to sneak veggies into your family's diet. Do YOU see any veggies in this dish (besides the tomato sauce)? I didn't think so . . .

Vegetarian Baked Ziti

16 oz. ziti pasta

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 small zucchini, minced

8 oz. mushrooms, minced

6.5 cups of marinara sauce ( if using jarred sauce, this is 2, 26 oz. jars)

6 oz. sliced provolone cheese

1.5 cups sour cream

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente, drain.
2. While pasta is cooking, saute onion, garlic, zucchini, and mushrooms in olive oil over medium high heat for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add marinara sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large, deep cooking dish with cooking spray. 
4. Layer ingredients as follows: sauce mixture, 1/2 of ziti, provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese, and remaining sauce mixture.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.

Notes: 

Once you mince all of the vegetables and cook them into the sauce, you'll have a thick sauce but your kids won't be able to spy the veggies in it! It'll look like this:

This recipe needs a VERY large and deep baking dish to accommodate all of the ingredients. I use a Corningware 2.8 Liter casserole dish, which is the equivalent to 2 1/2 quarts, and I usually have sauce left over. If you have a 3 quart baking dish, that would be the best size to use.

I always place the whole casserole dish on top of a cookie sheet to bake in case any of it bubbles over.

Also, you want to make sure that all of the noodles are covered with sauce on the final layer so that they don't dry out when baking. See this noodle right here? You want to cover that up with sauce.

Once you dig down through all of the layers to serve the finished dish, you'll find that they've mixed together into a cheesy baked pasta dish that's hard to resist! Yummy!