Baked Orzo Pasta
This delicious Baked Orzo Pasta comes together in just one dish! The pasta cooks in the sauce for added flavor, making this tasty recipe quick and easy.
I’ve been loving orzo pasta lately because its small shape cooks quickly and it’s such a versatile ingredient. This rice-shaped pasta can be used in soups and salads as well as baked pasta dishes like this one. This recipe is wonderful because you don’t have to pre-cook the pasta on the stovetop. Simply add the pasta to the casserole dish and bake it in the sauce until tender.
Baked Orzo Pasta Ingredients
- Orzo– You’ll need orzo pasta, a small pasta that is shaped like large grains of rice. It’s typically sold by the pasta but occasionally you’ll find it sold with the rice at the grocery store.
- Pasta sauce– I recommend a high quality pasta sauce like Rao’s Tomato Basil or the Vero Gusto sauce by Barilla.
- Spinach– A few handfuls of baby spinach is a great way to add veggies to this dish.
- Ricotta– A little ricotta cheese makes this dish taste rich and creamy. I recommend whole-milk ricotta. You could substitute this for cottage cheese, similar to my cottage cheese pasta sauce, if you prefer.
- Mozzarella– I like using a ball of fresh mozzarella cheese and tearing it into pieces. But you can use shredded mozzarella, if that’s what you have.
How to Make Baked Orzo
Add the orzo, pasta sauce, and water to a baking dish and stir until well combined. Add the spinach and stir until mixed. Use a spoon to add the ricotta in large dollops. Stir slightly, but don’t combine completely. Keeping some of the spoonfuls of ricotta intact creates delicious pockets of cheese after the pasta is baked.
Sprinkle with mozzarella and bake until bubbly. Top with fresh basil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper flakes.
Tips and Tricks
- You do not need to cook the pasta before adding it to the casserole dish. The pasta will bake in the sauce.
- Spray the casserole dish with non-stick spray to ensure the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom. I used a 2.5 qt casserole dish that is roughly 9 x 12 inches. Feel free to use a dish that is slightly larger or slightly smaller.
- I recommend using baby spinach, but if you’re using larger leaves of spinach, roughly chop it before adding to the casserole dish.
- To make this recipe vegan, I recommend using Kite Hill’s vegan ricotta and your favorite vegan mozzarella-style shreds.
- To make this recipe gluten-free, look for gluten-free orzo. It can be hard to find at the grocery store but you can usually get it on Amazon.
- If you liked this recipe, try my no boil baked ziti recipe!
More Orzo Recipes
Print
Baked Orzo Pasta
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This delicious Baked Orzo Pasta comes together in just one dish! The pasta cooks right in the sauce for added flavor, making this tasty recipe quick and easy!
Ingredients
- 1 lb orzo pasta (uncooked)
- 2 cups water
- 24 oz pasta sauce
- 5 oz spinach
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Add the uncooked orzo, pasta sauce, and water to a baking dish and stir until well combined.
- Add the spinach and stir until mixed.
- Use a spoon to add the ricotta in large dollops. Stir slightly, but don’t combine completely.
- Tear the fresh mozzarella into 1″ pieces and spread evenly across the top of the orzo.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove foil and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes.
Notes
Recipe adapted from The Kitchn.
Absolutely delicious! I do recommend adding a little more sauce or water and cooking longer than the recommended time. I also added ground beef to the sauce for some protein and it was a hit!
Mine needed up really liquid ish what went wrong???
Made this tonight exactly as instructed and it turned out PERFECT. Such a great and tasty dump and bake!
This did not turn out well. The orzo didn’t want to cook very well; it was in the dish for almost another 15 minutes before it was done, on top of the 35 it had already been in there with and without the lid (I don’t own any tin foil, my baking dishes all have lids instead). I ended up with less liquid overall than the recipe wanted just because I couldn’t find a jar of pasta sauce large enough and couldn’t afford a second jar, but there was still a lot of liquid when all was said and done. Unrelated note, be aware that this will use a very large baking dish. I used the largest one I own, and it still ended up making a mess at the bottom of my stove from overflowing
This is delicious
Will it freeze ok?
This is our family’s new favorite dinner. It’s going to be on repeat over here!
This is absolutely delicious! I love that it’s such a crowd pleaser for the whole family