Baked Penne Pasta has it all.

Delicious dinner recipe? Check. Freezer friendly? Check. Makes a lot of leftovers? Check. Approved by all ages in the family? Check. Feeds a large group of people? Check. Easy to make? Check!

Affiliate Disclosure:  Posts may contain affiliate links.

I’ve been making this Baked Penne Pasta Recipe for a while now. It’s finally time for me to share it with the world. If any of you dear readers out there embark on making this recipe, the world will be a better place. Share the love and impress your eaters.

What’s in Baked Penne Pasta?

As you can see from the video above, Baked Penne Pasta is made in a few stages. Here is what you’ll need for each step.

Meat Sauce

• Olive oil
• Diced onion
• Minced Garlic
• Ground beef (or one pound ground beef & one pound Italian sausage) Here is where you can find meat you can trust.
• 1 can whole tomatoes, with juice
• Canned tomato sauce

Filling & Topping

• Seasonings
• Whole wheat penne pasta
• Whole milk ricotta cheese
• Mozzarella cheese, grated
• Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg

Make the Meat Sauce

Start by softening up your garlic and diced onion in some olive oil. Now add your ground beef and brown it up until there is no pink showing. (Here is where you can find meat you can trust, btw.)

After the meat is browned up, drain off some fat and add in the whole tomatoes and cans of tomato sauce.

Add your salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and anything else you feel it needs.

Now let it simmer on low for about 25-30 minutes.

After that, remove 3 to 4 cups of the sauce to a different bowl to cool down. You’ll see why in a bit.

Cook the Pasta & Filling

After you get that sauce a-simmerin’, start multitasking.

If you need to shred your cheese (here is why you should shred your own cheese by the way) go ahead and do that. You can also start to boil your pasta. Make sure to undercook it a tad. Seriously. If not, you’ll have some funky texture going on after it bakes in the oven.

In another bowl, combine your creamy stuff: ricotta, egg, 2 cups mozzarella, parmesan, salt, and pepper. Give it a good stir. But not TOO good of a stir. Just enough to mix it together, k?

Mix the Pasta with the Creamy Filling

Once pasta is cooked and drained, mix it with your cheese mixture. After the pasta and cheese mixture is combined, add in that cooled pasta sauce I told you about earlier. You did follow my directions, right?!

Once you’ve mixed that together, you have a delicious, gooey mess.

Pour the pasta into a baking dish. 

Now top it off with remaining pasta sauce.

Now finish it off with a layer of mozzarella.

You know what comes next… bake it!

Goodness. I need to make some more after writing this post.

Looking for more ground beef recipes?

Check out our Top 10 Ground Beef Freezer Meals!