Meatball Baked Ziti
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Cheesy baked ziti with the easiest homemade meatballs. Quick to prepare and so so good. Comfort food at its best here!
Baked ziti. My all-time favorite kind of comfort food.
Except, I couldn’t just leave it like that. No, I couldn’t. I threw in some homemade meatballs and topped this entire bad boy with burrata cheese before baking it to absolute cheesy, melted perfection.
I personally prefer burrata here but if it’s not your jam, mozzarella would be a great substitute. And if you are short on time, you can absolutely substitute store-bought meatballs. (Side note: I highly recommend Trader Joe’s party size mini meatballs – they are so so good and a guilty pleasure of mine).
Serve with the remaining red wine, crusty bread, and a binge-worthy Netflix show. I recently finished Virgin River in 1.5 days and cannot wait for the second season!
Meatball Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 1 pound ziti pasta
- ¾ pound ground beef
- ¾ pound ground pork
- ⅓ cup Panko
- 2 large egg yolks
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ⅓ cup dry red wine
- 1 (32-ounce) jar marinara sauce
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- 8 ounces burrata cheese, torn into large pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions for al dente; drain well.
- In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, Panko, egg yolks, garlic, basil and oregano; season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 1-to-1-1/4-inch meatballs, forming about 24 meatballs.
- Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 2-3 minutes. Return meatballs to the Dutch oven.
- Stir in wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the Dutch oven.
- Stir in marinara sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until flavors have blended, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in pasta, basil and parsley.
- Spread pasta mixture into the prepared baking dish; top with burrata.
- Place into oven and bake until bubbly, about 25-30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Oh my gosh a really great food I made it for my family to try and everyone loves everything blending together, I really like it. Thank you so much.
that looks delicious, curious about it’s taste.
I made that today.
Absolutely Damn Delicious as your title suggests. This is definitely comfort food…simple, budget friendly, elegantly delicious and simply satisfying!!!!! Leftovers are equally tasty with a crisp garden salad to accompany this dinner.
I look forward to making all your recipes, hands down they are the damndest tastiest dishes to prepare…keep them coming!!! Your site is phenominal!!!!!♥️
being a veteran your meals great easy to make fit into budget thank you
Not a wine drinker and don’t want to buy a whole bottle for the 1/3 cup. Can it be eliminated or something be used as a substitute?
You can buy little mini bottles of wine, usually sold in 4 packs but some stores will sell them individually.
Hey Haley,
I know someone responded that you could buy mini bottles, I don’t drink red wine so what I have found most useful is purchasing red cooking wine. It taste just as good and you do not have to refrigerate after opening!
Trader Joe’s has a good cheap wine for 2.99 whi beats the cooking wine. I don’t drink wine either, but I love cooking with it.
You don’t need to use wine, wine has a lot of sugar in it so it helps to cut the acid from the tomatoes, 1/4 cup-ish of plain white sugar will do the same thing. A old Italian mother told me that trick.
Sounds like a great recipe! Are the meatballs added the marinara sauce to cook or added to the marinara with the pasta?
Same question!
Wondering this myself!
Yes, step 4. After you’ve finished browning the meatballs, they get returned to the pan. Then you pour in the wine, then the sauce.
Question: seasoned or plain Panko? Thank you
Plain. 🙂
Just wondering if it could be frozen then baked later, and how to do that? Thanks
Absolutely! Prior to the baking step, let it cool completely, then cover with a double layer of foil and freeze for up to three months. To reheat, place the baked ziti straight from freezer to oven at 350 degrees F. Bake for one hour, or more as needed, covered, to thaw completely and warm through.
Why egg yolks and not the whole egg? I always use a whole egg for binding is why I ask.
I find that egg yolks alone work best; the whites tend to make the mixture sticky and harder to handle with no benefits.
This looks so good! What if I can’t find burrata cheese?
You can use mozzarella in place