18 Baked Pasta Recipes To Make When You Need Comfort Food ASAP
There’s more to baked pasta than mac and cheese.
Greg DuPree
When you think of baked pasta, mac and cheese likely comes to mind, but there are many more baked pasta recipes worthy of a spot in your weekly meal rotation. Baked pasta can typically be made with a variety of pantry and freezer staples, such as jarred tomato sauce, noodles, and frozen veggies, and it often hits the spot for the whole family. Plus, the dish often comes together in less than an hour, and has a myriad of variations.
Some of our favorite baked pasta recipes include Sausage and Fontina Spaghetti Pie and French Onion Casserole, but if neither of those whet your appetite, feel free to scroll down for over a dozen more options. We promise you’ll find something easy, comforting, and delicious!
Related: 45 Perfect Pasta Recipes You'll Want to Make for Dinner Tonight (and Every Night)
Sausage and Fontina Spaghetti Pie
Victor Protasio
Spaghetti pie? We’re listening! This hearty dinner includes creamy vodka sauce, flavorful Italian sausage, kale, ricotta, and fragrant sage, while eggs and creamy fontina cheese bind everything together. As the savory pie bakes, the tomato sauce caramelizes to create the most scrumptious crispy edges. You can bet that the whole family will love this dish.
Cheesy Baked Pasta
This cheesy baked pasta recipe combines orecchiette pasta with sausage, broccoli rabe, and a creamy marinara sauce. That creaminess comes from the secret ingredient—cream cheese—while grated Parmesan ups the cheesiness factor. Ready in just 40 minutes, this recipe is peak comfort food.
Ricotta Roll-Ups in Creamy Pumpkin Sauce
For a fall twist on baked pasta, bookmark this recipe, which calls for a superstar combo of ricotta, pumpkin, and sage. The balance of creamy and crispy is just delightful, as the edges of the rolls of fresh pasta get a little crispy, and the rest of this easy-baked pasta dish is tender and creamy. It’s ready in a little over an hour, and only calls for a handful of dishes, meaning minimal cleanup for you.
French Onion Casserole
What do you get when you combine macaroni and cheese and French onion soup? This baked pasta recipe that’s ready in an hour. Here, you’ll find penne pasta with jammy caramelized onions and a mixture of Gruyere and Cheddar cheeses in each bite. Have you bookmarked this recipe yet?
Artichoke-Chard Pasta and Cheese
Greg DuPree
Consider this cozy baked pasta dish your new favorite meal. Inside, you’ll find savory Provolone, silky chard, and tender artichoke hearts. If you’re a fan of spinach artichoke dip, we predict you’ll love this meal too.
Wild Mushroom and Spinach Stuffed Shells
Who doesn’t love stuffed shells? This take on the hearty and comforting meal uses a combination of spinach and mushrooms in place of ground meat, yielding a vegetarian baked pasta dish that everyone will love.
Cheesy Sausage Pasta Bake with Brussels Sprouts
This cheesy sausage pasta bake is wonderfully balanced, delivering protein, vegetables, and comforting carbohydrates. Inside, you’ll find rigatoni tubes with sausage, charred Brussels sprouts, and a Worcestershire-spiked cheese sauce that’s tangy, creamy, and delicious. Are you drooling yet?
Pesto Skillet Lasagna
Fred Hardy,
This pesto lasagna largely comes together in a skillet, but you’ll pop it in the broiler for a few minutes near the end of the cooking process so the cheese fully melts and gets a little brown and crispy on top. Inside you’ll find store-bought pesto (opt for the refrigerated stuff), sautéed baby spinach, broken-up lasagna noodles, and plenty of tangy, creamy cheese.
Related: 8 Pasta Mistakes That Are Ruining Your Meal
Cheesy Baked Ravioli and Romaine Salad
What’s better than a plate of ravioli? A cheesy ravioli bake packed with store-bought four-cheese stuffed pasta, a quick DIY tomato sauce, and a shower of shredded mozzarella cheese. Serve this gooey, comforting baked pasta dish with a side salad and you’re all set.
Caprese Mac and Cheese
Fred Hardy
This lighter take on mac and cheese is inspired by the classic Caprese salad. In this dish, as is the case with the Italian salad, you’ll find mozzarella, tomato, and basil. Since it is mac and cheese, this baked pasta also includes orecchiette pasta, plenty of butter and milk, and a dash of Dijon mustard for just a little bit of spice.
Baked Feta Pasta
As baked pasta recipes go, this TikTok darling is one of the best. It’s made with a handful of ingredients, including cherry tomatoes, a big block of feta cheese, the pasta of your choosing, and herbs and seasonings such as olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and fresh basil. Ready in under an hour, this is a dish you’ll want to make again and again.
Lasagna-Style Baked Ziti
This baked pasta dish calls for ziti, but it’s really more like a classic lasagna thanks to ground beef, tomato sauce, ricotta, and even more cheese. Fresh spinach adds protein, but if you’re not a spinach fan, feel free to swap in kale or another green instead.
Make-Ahead Mac and Cheese
Mac and cheese that you can make ahead is a godsend for holidays, surprise guests, and busy weeknights. This recipe can be made up to four days in advance, and then cooked in the oven whenever you’re ready to dig in. The combination of Cheddar, Muenster, and Monterey Jack cheeses makes the final result buttery, sharp, and tangy.
Four Cheese Lasagna
A combination of four cheeses—ricotta, provolone, mozzarella, and Parmesan—yields a rich baked pasta dish that comes together in just 45 minutes. Ground beef adds plenty of protein, while jarred pasta sauce offers a helpful shortcut.
Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs
What do you get when you combine spaghetti and meatballs with a classic casserole? This cozy baked pasta dish. Here, everything goes uncooked in the oven and emerges in about an hour. You’ll find saucy noodles, homemade meatballs, and pockets of creamy mozzarella cheese.
Cheesy Vegetable Pasta
For a dinner that’s gooey, cheesy, and yet still packed with healthy vegetables, bookmark this recipe ASAP. Here, vitamin and antioxidant-rich eggplant, zucchini, and onion mingle with noodles and plenty of cheese. If you don’t mind a little spice, add some crushed red pepper flakes to the pasta mixture before baking everything in the oven.
Related: 20+ Types of Pasta Noodles Everyone Should Know
Broccoli, Spinach, and Three-Cheese Lasagna
This lasagna is the perfect weeknight meal, in part, because it calls for frozen broccoli and no-boil lasagna noodles, among other ingredients. Those shortcuts mean it’s ready in a little over an hour and will have you reaching for seconds in record time.
Kicked-Up Mac and Cheese
If you're looking to elevate the classic baked pasta dish that is mac and cheese, this recipe is a good place to start. In addition to the basics, this version includes tortilla chips, green chiles, homemade taco seasoning, and a chopped scallion topping. Yum!
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