This no-boil baked ziti recipe is only 5 ingredients but it’s cheesy and delicious! You can have this tasty meal in the oven in 5 minutes, so it’s a great recipe for busy days!

No Boil Baked Ziti
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You know I love easy recipes, and this one might be one of the easiest recipes on my blog! That’s right, this meatless baked ziti recipe is just a handful of ingredients and it all cooks together in one pan. That’s right, there’s no need to boil the noodles! Simply stir them up with the sauce, add your cheese, and bake. I’m wondering why I’ve spent so much of my life boiling pasta before baking when I could have just baked it right in the sauce. Live and learn, right? Let’s not waste any more time at the stove! This no boil pasta bake recipe is made with no meat, so it’s completely vegetarian!

No Boil Baked Ziti

Ingredients & Substitutions

  • Pasta- I’ve tested this recipe with regular ziti noodles, Barilla’s protein pasta, and Banza‘s chickpea noodles. All of them worked with minor adjustments, as noted below. Remember, you do not need to boil pasta for this meatless pasta recipe!
  • Sauce- I recommend a high-quality marinara sauce like Rao’s Tomato Basil or Barilla’s Vero Gusto sauce for this meatless baked ziti.
  • Ricotta- I used whole milk ricotta, but you can use part-skim if you want to make this lower in fat. If you need to make this baked ziti without ricotta, one reader told me she made it with cream cheese instead and that worked out great!
  • Mozzarella– I used fresh mozzarella but shredded mozzarella works fine, too.
  • Parmesan– Freshly grated Parmesan cheese makes a difference! Get the real stuff, not the kind in the can.

Adjusted Cooking Times for Different Pasta

I tested this baked pasta dish with traditional pasta, whole wheat pasta, and chickpea pasta. It worked great with all of them but I did make a few adjustments:

Traditional pasta & whole wheat pasta– You can make the recipe exactly as written. Bake tightly covered for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and continue to bake for 10 minutes.

Chickpea pasta– Cover tightly and bake for 30 minutes, then carefully remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. The chickpea pasta cooks faster than traditional pasta, so you want to reduce the cooking time in order to prevent soggy pasta. Keep in mind that no matter how you cook it, chickpea pasta does have a slightly softer texture than traditional pasta. But I think it’s still delicious in this recipe.

How to Make No-Boil Baked Ziti