Hearty Baked Penne Pasta
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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!
This Baked Penne Pasta Recipe is an easy, kid-friendly dinner idea. It makes a HUGE batch, so it’s great for large groups too. In addition to that, you can turn it into a freezer meal.
Video Tutorial: Baked Penne Pasta
Watch how easy it comes together!
Ingredients Needed
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.
Ingredients for the 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
The Rest of the Ingredients
- Seasonings
- Whole wheat penne pasta
- Whole milk ricotta cheese
- Mozzarella cheese, grated
- Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
How to Make Baked Penne Pasta
Make the Meat Sauce
After sautéing some diced onion and garlic, you will brown your ground beef. (Here is where you can find meat you can trust, btw.)
After the ground beef is browned, drain off some fat and add in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning.
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
After you get that sauce a-simmerin’, start multitasking.
Start to boil your pasta. Follow the instructions on your box for cooking it al dente.
Once it’s cooked, drain.
Make the Creamy Filling
While pasta is boiling you can whip together your creamy cheese filling.
In a large mixing bowl, combine ingredients for the filling: ricotta, egg, mozzarella, parmesan, salt, and pepper. Give it a good stir.
Mix the Pasta with the Creamy Filling
Add the cooked and drained pasta into the large bowl with the cheese mixture.
After the pasta and cheese mixture is combined, add in that cooled pasta sauce.
Once you’ve mixed that together, you have a delicious, gooey mess.
Assemble the Casserole
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!
Pro Tip
This recipe makes a HUGE batch. If you have a lasagna dish, use that. If not, you might consider splitting the batch between two 9×13 dishes.
Freeze one for later!
Variations of This Recipe
- Use cooked and diced chicken or ground turkey! It could be a great way to use up a rotisserie chicken.
- Add veggies! Try I love to toss in raw spinach, sautéed mushrooms, cooked zucchini, or sautéed bell peppers.
- You don’t have to use penne pasta. You can substitute with another similar short pasta shape.
How to Freeze Baked Penne Pasta
Freeze For Later: Follow the recipe right up until baking it. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, foil or a lid. Freeze.
Prepare From Frozen: When ready to cook, you have two options:
- Thawed: Thaw in the fridge (may take up to 48 hours) or thaw in the microwave on defrost setting. Bake at 375 degrees F according to Step 11 in the recipe.
- Frozen: If cooking directly from frozen state, cover with foil. Place the frozen casserole in the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Once it comes to temperature, bake for about 1 hour and 20-40 minutes, until heated through and bubbly. Remove the foil the last 20 minutes.
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What to Serve with Baked Penne Pasta
This recipe plays nice with others. Here are some side dish ideas:
Goodness, I need to make a batch after writing this post. I’m hungry!
Did you make this? Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram at @thrivinghome so we can see your creations and cheer you on!
Baked Penne Pasta
Freezer Friendly Baked Penne Pasta Recipe. Easy, kid-friendly dinner idea. Great for large groups too.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pounds ground beef (or one pound ground beef & one pound Italian sausage) Here is where you can find meat you can trust.
- 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes, with juice
- 2 (14.5 ounce) cans tomato sauce
- 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
- 1 pound (16 ounces) whole wheat penne pasta
- 1 tub (15 ounces) whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1–1/2 pounds mozzarella cheese, grated
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
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Instructions
Make It Now:
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add diced onions and garlic and saute for several minutes, or until starting to soften.
- Add ground beef and cook until browned. Drain off fat, leaving a bit behind for flavor and moisture.
- Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Stir and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes.
- After that time, remove 3 to 4 cups of the sauce to a different bowl to cool down.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Begin to boil your pasta. Make sure to undercook it a tad–especially if freezing!
- In a separate bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, 2 cups of the grated mozzarella, Parmesan, egg, and a dash of salt and pepper.
- Drain the pasta and rinse under cool water to stop the cooking. Pour it into the bowl with the cheese mixture and barely mix it together.
- Add the cooled meat sauce that you set aside earlier and toss to combine.
- Dump the pasta mixture into a large greased casserole dish or lasagna dish. (NOTE: I ended up using a 9×13 AND a 9×9 dish to fit all of it!) Spoon the remaining sauce over the top, then top with remaining mozzarella cheese. (Freezing instructions begin here.)
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until bubbling. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Hint: Sprinkle chopped parsley over the pasta before serving!
Freeze For Later: Follow the recipe through Step 10. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, foil or a lid. Freeze.
Prepare From Frozen: When ready to cook, you have two options:
- Thawed: Thaw in the fridge (may take up to 48 hours) or thaw in the microwave on defrost setting. Bake at 375 degrees F according to Step 11 in the recipe.
- Frozen: If cooking directly from frozen state, cover with foil. Place the frozen casserole in the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Once it comes to temperature, bake for about 1 hour and 20-40 minutes, until heated through and bubbly. Remove the foil the last 20 minutes.
Notes/Tips
Where We Get Our Beef: We get our beef from ButcherBox. The beef is grass-fed and curated from trusted farms. We highly recommend this service to source healthy meat–like uncured bacon, chicken, and wild salmon–and have used it for years ourselves.
Looking for more ground beef recipes?
Check out our Top 10 Ground Beef Freezer Meals!
Can you make this in a crock pot?
We have not tested that Taylor. If you do give it a try, we’d love to hear how it goes!
This recipe was a hit with 38 very hungry young men. We quadrupled the recipe, and there was enough for seconds and to-go boxes afterwards. I added mushrooms and used low-fat ricotta to make it a bit healthier. Thanks for this recipe. Bake time for a large double tray is affected–after refrigeration overnight, I baked the dish for 1 hr. 20 mins, and would possibly have gone 1.5 hours. Further, I appreciated the notes re. variations and the video. Thanks again for a delicious recipe.
★★★★★
Wow Nancy! That’s a small army! 🙂 So glad it was well-liked and there was plenty to send home with the hungry guys. Thanks for the tips and for taking the time to leave a review.
Can you omit the Ricotta
Hi Lori. The ricotta provides the creaminess in this recipe. You could certainly use cottage cheese as an easy replacement. But if that doesn’t sound good, I’d definitely add in some more shredded cheese in it’s place (although I can’t promise the same results). Hope that helps!
The recipe calls for 2-14.5 oz. cans of tomato sauce? Is this spaghetti sauce? And are we to use BOTH the large jar of canned tomatoes AND the tomato sauce?
Tomato sauce is sold in cans and is thinner and has fewer ingredients than marinara/spaghetti sauce.
Yes, use both the canned tomatoes and the tomato sauce for this recipe.