This hearty baked rigatoni recipe is fast, flavorful, and on the table in minutes.
With just a handful of ingredients this easy rigatoni recipe has a zesty beefy tomato sauce tossed with rigatoni, sprinkled with cheese and baked until golden and bubbly.
Everyone Loves This Baked Rigatoni Because…
- Loads of savory Italian flavors and rich pasta sauce.
- It’s easy to prepare and with a few ingredients.
- Baking pasta is a perfect way to blend the flavors and creates a delicious cheesy crust.
- This recipe is a great way to stretch ground beef, and it’s versatile.
- Add extra veggies and sauce to stretch the meal (and your budget) even further!
What You’ll Need for Baked Rigatoni
Meat: Use lean ground beef (80/20) for a delicious meaty sauce in this baked rigatoni recipe.
Pasta: I love rigatoni for all that meaty sauce to cling to. Try other hearty pasta shapes like ziti, rotini, or penne.
Sauce: This shortcut sauce levels up a jar of your fave pasta sauce (we love this brand). You can replace it with homemade marinara sauce.
Cheese: This casserole is topped with grated mozzarella; feel free to add Parmesan cheese, use pre-shredded, or swap in your favorite Italian cheese blend.
Variations
- Meat: Change the flavor by using ground turkey or Italian sausage. Short on time? Toss in some mini pre-cooked meatballs in Step 4.
- Veggies: Stretch the meal further with veggies—try chopped mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, or diced tomatoes.
- Cheese: Other cheeses to try are provolone, Monterey Jack, or a Mexican blend. Creamy ricotta can be added to the Sauce in Step 4 for an extra rich and creamy sauce.
How to Make Baked Rigatoni
- Cook ground beef with onion and simmer with the sauce (recipe below).
- Stir cooked rigatoni into the meat sauce and transfer to a baking dish.
- Top with cheese and bake until bubbly.
Serve with garlic toast and a crispy salad, and dinner’s ready!
Recipe Tips
- Cook the pasta until al dente (firm), as it will cook more as it bakes.
- Veggies can be added; be sure to cook them first so they don’t make the rigatoni watery.
- Swap out the cheese for what you have on hand. Pre-shredded cheese works just fine in this recipe!
Keep leftover baked rigatoni covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and reheat portions in the microwave.
How to Make Ahead
- Prepare this rigatoni pasta bake up to 3 days in advance.
- To freeze whole, baked, and cooled rigatoni pasta, line the casserole dish with foil before baking. This makes it easy to lift out once frozen, so you can reuse the dish and enjoy a hassle-free meal prep.
- Wrap the frozen casserole with more foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in a casserole dish in the refrigerator overnight before baking.
More Baked Pasta Dishes You'll Love
Did you enjoy this Baked Rigatoni Recipe? Leave a comment and rating below.
Baked Rigatoni
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 5 cups pasta sauce approximately two jars
- 1 pound Rigatoni pasta plus ½ cup pasta water
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- In a large saucepan brown ground beef and onion over medium heat, breaking up the beef as it cooks. Drain any fat.
- Add Italian seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute.
- Add the pasta sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, add rigatoni to the boiling water, and cook just to al dente according to the package directions (it will continue to cook in the oven).
- Reserve ½ cup pasta water and drain. Stir pasta water into meat sauce.
- Combine pasta and pasta sauce in a saucepan. Lightly grease a 3-quart baking dish, and transfer the pasta mixture.
- Cover with a lightly greased piece of foil and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until heated through.
- Uncover and sprinkle with cheese. Bake an additional 10 minutes, until cheese has started to brown.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Casserole, Dinner, Entree, Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine American, Italian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I doubled the recipe using Italian sausage, and added mushrooms. Typically my husband doesn’t like baked things that he considers “casseroles” but he thoroughly enjoyed this. I had extra that I assembled in a tin type container and froze it so my son can cook it on his own at a later time.
Michelle, that sounds like a delicious twist on the recipe! I’m so glad your husband enjoyed it, especially since he’s not usually a fan of casseroles. The addition of Italian sausage and mushrooms must have made it even tastier. It’s also great that you froze some for your son to enjoy later—what a convenient and thoughtful idea! Thanks for sharing your modifications!
Excellent and so easy to make! My company raves about the flavor!
Hi Trudi. I am so glad to hear that you and your company enjoyed this baked rigatoni.
I am getting ready to make this dish — one question—in ingredients list, it is 5 cups of sauce OR two 24 oz jars?
Sorry for the confusion Linda, it is 5 cups of pasta sauce which is just less than two jars. If you have a little bit more or a little bit less, this recipe will still turn out great.
it was an absolute hit. I had all these ingredients right in my house. and I’m in school so this was a perfect quick recipe to make.
HI Dani, I am happy that you found this recipe convenient and quick.
Simply delicious. Used up my various pastas to make 16oz. Made my own marinara sauce like recipe gives the option to do so. Makes a big lasagne full of delicious, comfort food. Definitely will make again.
Pretty tasty & easy
This was awesome. I used ground beef and ground turkey, extra Italian seasoning and mozzarella and Parmesan mixed. My family loved it. So easy, so good!Louise
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Louise!
For the baked rigatoni pasta, can I substitute zucchini noodles? I’ve been wanting to try them but not really a fan of a lot of the recipes out there.
Sure you can. I would suggest cooking the zucchini noodles for just a couple of minutes before putting this together (I find they get less watery that way). Keep in mind that while the flavor will be great, zucchini noodles do have a lot of water so the dish might be a little bit more runny with zoodles.
Just made this recipe and it turned out amazing ! I added some mushrooms and garnished the top with chopped parsley :) super delish, thank you.
I mad your pasta sauce recipe yesterday for this recipe. Should I still add the pasta water to the sauce?
Yes Candace, I would still add the pasta water. :)
Hi there,
Could I use penne pasta instead of rigatoni?
Renee
Sure you can!
I made this with half sausage and half ground beef. I also added sliced mushrooms to the sauce. Served it with garlic bread and It was absolutely delicious! There were no leftovers to have the next day. Family says it’s a keeper!
That is wonderful Karen! So happy your family loved it.
I am debating between making the Baked Rigatoni (shown here) versus the Baked Ziti revipe. I like the appearance of the rigatoni consistency better I think, but was wondering if adding ricotta (or ricotta/egg) to the rigatoni recipe would hurt. We love cheese! What can I say? Hoping to make one of the two recipes for dinner tonight.
I’d say that you’re right Lori, can’t go wrong with adding ricotta! Let us know how it turns out for you and enjoy!