No boiling required in this Pumpkin and Sausage Baked Ziti! After cooking the sausage in the pan, just dump the rest of the ingredients into an oven safe pot, stir, top with cheese, cover, and bake until pasta is perfectly cooked!
No Boil Pumpkin and Sausage Baked Ziti
Happy first day of fall! While it doesn’t need to be fall to make this delicious baked ziti, it’s a nice way to start the new season, don’t you think?
I love no boil pasta bakes. I started making them during quarantine, because after we had to give a paid leave to our nanny, dinners were hard to prepare. With two little ones pulling on your legs, you don’t have much time to devote to dinner! Thus, this no boil pasta bake situation was born.
Literally, you just put everything into an oven safe dish (I love wide, deep skillets for pasta bakes!), stir, cover, and pop in the oven and let the heat do its magic. The pasta cooks perfectly, the cheese is melted and bubbly, and best of all, it only takes a few minutes to prepare and then you’re hands free.
If you want to step it up a notch, you could first fry up some sage leaves in oil before you cook the sausage, for a real Autumn feel. Then, just crumble them on top of the finished pasta bake at the end!
Also, if you’re vegetarian, just totally omit the sausage step. That makes this recipe even quicker, more hands off, and the flavor is still similar. If you want, stir in a can of cannellini beans for more protein, but the pasta and cheese offer a great source of protein!
I love pasta bakes and I know you’re going to cozy up with this one and be hooked too!
Recipe
Serves 4-6
5 minPrep Time
60 minCook Time
1 hr, 5 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 pound pork sausage, decased
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree
- 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- salt and pepper
- (16oz) box ziti
- ¾ cup ricotta cheese
- 1-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- optional to garnish: red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large, wide oven-safe pot skillet, add the pork sausage and crumble with a wooden spoon. Cook until pork is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and stir well to coat the meat in the tomato paste. Add the pumpkin and stir to combine. Then, add the broth, season with salt and pepper, and stir well to combine. Add the ziti and stir to combine. Add dollops of the ricotta throughout the pasta, by the tablespoon. Sprinkle over the top with the mozzarella cheese. Cover and cook for 40 minutes or until ziti is cooked through and al dente. If you don’t like crispy pasta edges, make sure all the noodles are mostly submerged in the liquid (although, the crispy parts are the best!)
- Uncover and sprinkle with red pepper flakes, if using. Serve.
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