Pasta dishes are always a family favorite, and this Five Cheese Ziti Al Forno is no exception with this perfect combination of pasta sauce and melty cheese, tender pasta, and the best golden brown crispy topping.
If you love copycat recipes, this Olive Garden copycat recipe is the pasta recipe to make! It is delicious, bursting with flavor, and tons of cheese.
Serve this pasta dish with Olive Garden bread sticks and you will feel like you are at a restaurant, not simply enjoying a delicious dinner made from your own kitchen.
Recipe Ingredients:
The pasta:
- Pasta: you will want to get your favorite brand of dry ziti pasta from the grocery store
- Sauce: you can keep it simple with jars of marinara sauce and alfredo sauce since we will be making it our own
- Tomatoes: get a can of chopped tomatoes
- Cheese: for the best flavor profile you will want to use both ricotta cheese and freshly grated parmesan
- Seasonings: season with both salt and black pepper to your taste
For the cheese mix:
- Cheese: you will use a combination of shredded provolone cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese, and shredded Fontina cheese,
The breadcrumbs topping:
- Bread crumbs: you will only need plain breadcrumbs for this boneless
- Butter: you will need to use melted butter, preferably unsalted butter
How To Make Five Cheese Ziti Al Forno:
Prepare the pasta:
- Cook the pasta: cook your pasta in a pot of salted boiling water, until al dente. Drain the pasta.
- Coat the pasta: in a large bowl, combine marinara sauce, can of chopped tomatoes, alfredo sauce, ricotta, and freshly grated parmesan. Add pasta and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Make your cheese mix:
- Gather your cheese: add provolone, mozzarella, and fontina cheese in a bowl. Reserve 1/3 cup of the cheese mixture.
- Add the cheese to the pasta; add the remaining cheese to the pasta and stir to combine.
Prepare the breadcrumbs topping:
- Make the topping: melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the breadcrumbs and set aside.
Assemble the pasta:
- Heat your oven: preheat your oven to 375℉.
- Bake the pasta: add the pasta to a slightly greased 9-inch baking dish. Add reserved cheese blend on top as well as the prepared breadcrumb topping. Bake the pasta for 30 minutes. Allow the pasta to cool down for 10 minutes before serving.
Variations
Make it spicy: use fire-roasted tomatoes or add in a little bit of cayenne pepper to make a zesty marinara sauce.
Different cheeses: you can create your own Italian cheese blend with your favorite cheeses. Pick between parmesan cheese, romano cheese, mozzarella cheese, or white cheddar cheese.
Fresh herbs: add fresh basil to the top of this cooked pasta for added fresh flavor to this ziti dish.
Expert Tips
- Baked ziti pasta is amazing, but if you somehow cannot find the ziti pasta, use similar types, such as penne or rigatoni.
- For this recipe I added some canned chopped tomatoes, just to make the pasta more interesting. You can also use just marinara or tomato basil sauce.
- Make sure you taste your pasta cheese mixture before adding any salt or pepper. Parmesan is on the saltier side, so you do not want to end up with too salty pasta.
- These cheeses are just a recommendation, here are some others you can use: Asiago, Pecorino Romano, and even Gorgonzola.
- For the breadcrumbs, you can choose plain ones, Italian, or for extra crunch Panko breadcrumbs.
Frequently Asked Questions for making this tasty pasta dinner recipe:
You definitely can add meat to this cozy family dinner recipe. Adding in ground beef, ground Italian sausage, meatballs, or ground chicken with the tender pasta and cheesy sauce is a great way to bump up the protein of this ziti recipe.
To make your homemade sauce, which is always superior to the store-bought versions here is what you will need:
¼ cup butter
¾ cup heavy cream
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon Italian herbs
Salt and pepper, to taste
With this ziti al forno recipe, you definitely can mix in some steamed broccoli or asparagus into the melty cheese and marinara sauce.
Freezing & Reheating Instructions:
Reheat: To reheat place the leftover pasta into a casserole dish in the oven at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, or until heated through.
Freeze: soop the cheesy pasta into a freezer bag or an airtight container and store it for up to 3 months in your deep freezer.
More pasta recipes:
- Crockpot Spaghetti
- Instant Pot Panera Copycat White Cheesy Shells Recipe
- Instant Pot Loaded Mac and Cheese Recipe
- Instant Pot Ground Beef Lazy Lasagna Recipe
Five Cheese Ziti Al Forno Recipe
Ingredients
For the pasta:
- 0.75 lb. dry ziti pasta
- 1 ⅓ cup marinara sauce
- ¼ cup can chopped tomatoes
- 1 cup alfredo sauce*
- ¼ cup ricotta cheese
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For the cheese mix:
- ½ cup provolone cheese, shredded
- ½ cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
- ¼ cup Fontina cheese, shredded
For the breadcrumbs topping:
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs, plain
- 1 ½ Tablespoon butter
Instructions
Prepare the pasta:
- Cook the pasta: cook your pasta in a pot of salted boiling water, until al dente. Drain the pasta.
- Coat the pasta: in a large bowl, combine marinara sauce, can chopped tomatoes, alfredo sauce, ricotta, and freshly grated parmesan. Add pasta and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Make your cheese mix:
- Gather your cheese: add provolone, mozzarella, and fontina cheese in a bowl. Reserve ⅓ cup of the cheese mixture.
- Add the cheese to the pasta; add the remaining cheese to the pasta and stir to combine.
Prepare the breadcrumbs topping:
- Make the topping: melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the breadcrumbs and set aside.
Assemble the pasta:
- Heat your oven: preheat your oven to 375℉.
- Bake the pasta: add the pasta to a slightly greased 9-inch baking dish. Add reserved cheese blend on top as well as the prepared breadcrumb topping. Bake the pasta for 30 minutes. Allow the pasta to cool down for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- ¼ cup butter
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon Italian herbs
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
Did you drain the canned tomatoes? Also, when I increase to 6 servings, the pan size does not increase. Would this go into a 9×13 with this increase instead of a 9 inch?
No need to drain the tomatoes and yes you can make this in a 9X13 pan when you increase the serving size
I’m making this for guests tomorrow. You don’t cover the five cheese baked ziti while cooking?
No need to cover the ziti when baking
Could I add a pound of browned ground beef? Or would a different meat choice be better?