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    You are Here: Masala Herb » Recipes » Noodles and Pasta

    Baked Five Cheese Ziti al Forno Recipe

    March 19, 2021 by Helene Dsouza 2 Comments

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    • Bluesky
    Helene Dsouza
    Comfort food family pasta dinner meal. Cheesy and rich in flavors!
    Total Time: 55 minutes minutes
    Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes
    6 servings
    RECIPE
    olive garden baked 5 cheese ziti al forno
    close up of homemade 5 cheese ziti al forno
    baked served 5 cheese ziti al forno

    A comfort food classic: Five cheese ziti al forno baked crispy in a casserole baking dish.

    This is a family favorite and it's vegetarian.

    spoon and baked five cheese ziti
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    Jump to:
    • 📕 What's Five Cheese Ziti al Forno?
    • 🍅 Ingredients
    • 🔪 How to make it?
    • 📖 Recipe
    • 🍴Serving
    • 🍱 Storing
    • 💭 FAQs
    • 👁️ More Pasta Dinner Meal Ideas
    • 💬 Comments

    📕 What's Five Cheese Ziti al Forno?

    It's a comfort food pasta dish popularized by olive garden, an Italian themed restaurant food chain.

    Ziti pasta is mixed in an Alfredo sauce and seasoned marinara sauce with 5 different kinds of cheese.

    It's then baked with a perfect baked cheesy crust!

    Al Forno is Italian and means cooked in the oven.

    This copycat recipe is inspired by the velvety olive garden restaurant classic.

    top down view picture of baked homemade ziti al forno

    🍅 Ingredients

    This baked pasta is a meatless dish and you will need the following ingredients:

    • ziti - a pasta variety resembling penne. If you can't get ziti, substitute with penne pasta.
    • butter
    • all-purpose flour
    • milk
    • tomato sauce - unseasoned/unflavored, simply plain tomato marinara style tomato sauce.
    • salt and black pepper
    • Italian seasoning - substitute with oregano (but will include less flavor complexity)
    • garlic and onion powder
    • 5 cheese - I use mozzarella, parmesan, cream cheese, fontina, and emmental or cheddar

    You can also substitute cream cheese with ricotta and parmesan with pecorino.

    Some more cheese varieties that you can choose to use to make this recipe your own: Swiss Gruyère, Muenster, Yellow American Cheese.

    🔪 How to make it?

    Here is an overview of how to prepare this dish easily from scratch at home.

    The detailed recipe with US and metric measurements is located at the bottom of this post in the recipe card.

    Step 1

    Boil pasta as per package instructions.

    cook ziti pasta

    Step 2

    Prepare cheesy tomato sauce in a skillet

    prepare alfredo add tomato marinara, seaso and add cheese for ziti sauce

    Step 3

    Combine cooked pasta and sauce in a baking dish.

    Top with cheese and bake crispy.

    combine ziti with marinara cheese sauce in the baking dish

    📖 Recipe

    olive garden baked 5 cheese ziti al forno

    Baked Five Cheese Ziti al Forno Recipe

    Comfort food family pasta dinner meal. Cheesy and rich in flavors!
    4.78 from 9 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Main Course
    Cuisine: American, Italian
    Diet: Vegetarian
    Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 55 minutes minutes
    Servings: 6 servings
    Calories: 389kcal
    Recipe by: Helene Dsouza

    Ingredients

    For the Pasta

    • 8 ounces Ziti *see Notes

    For the Sauce

    • 1 Tablespoon Butter
    • 2 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
    • 1 cup Milk
    • 1½ cup Marinara Sauce plain flavored tomato sauce
    • ½ cup Cream Cheese
    • 1 cup Mozzarella, Parmesan, Fontina and Emmental mixed grated
    • ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
    • ½ Teaspoon Salt
    • 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
    • 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
    • 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning substitute with oregano

    Topping

    • ½ cup Mozzarella, Parmesan, Fontina and Emmental mixed or just one of those grated
    • Parsley Fresh fresh chopped
    US - Metric

    Instructions

    Cook pasta

    • Cook ziti pasta as per package instructions.

    Prepare the sauce

    • Heat up a skillet with butter and melt it. Stir in flour and mix it quickly into the butter over a low heat setting. This is the base, a roux.
    • Pour in some milk and keep on mixing, heat the skillet a little more (low to medium setting). Add all the milk until it's all used up so that the sauce thickens ad gets smoother in consistency.
    • Stir in the marinara tomato sauce. Keep over a low to medium heat setting.
    • Add the cream cheese and 4 other grated cheese. Mix it all in over the heat.
    • Season with black pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. You can substitute the Italian seasoning with oregano.
    • Mix it all up, stirring over a lower heat setting. The sauce should be velvety smooth and well combined in consistency.

    To bake

    • Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit/ 190 Celsius.
    • Place cooked strained ziti pasta into a rectangular baking dish.
    • Pour cheese sauce over the pasta and mix it all in so that the pasta is well coated.
    • Top with grated cheese.
    • Bake for about 15 minutes at 375 Fahrenheit/ 190 Celsius or until the top is crispy baked. I like to use the broiler setting for that.
    • Serve up hot with freshly chopped parsley.

    Notes

    • 8 ounces/230 grams makes about ½ a pack ziti noodles.
    • plain marinara sauce is also called tomato passata
    • combine the cheese quantities to your liking, I used about the same quantity of mozzarella, parmesan, fontina, and emmental. Sometimes I use cheddar instead of emmental.

    Equipment

    • Medium Pot with Lid (5 qt)
    • Stainless Steal Non-Stick PFOA-free Frying Pan
    • Wood or Bamboo Spatula
    • 9 x 13" Rectangular Baking Dish

    Nutrition

    Nutrition Facts
    Baked Five Cheese Ziti al Forno Recipe
    Amount Per Serving
    Calories 389 Calories from Fat 180
    % Daily Value*
    Fat 20g31%
    Saturated Fat 12g60%
    Trans Fat 1g
    Cholesterol 60mg20%
    Sodium 788mg33%
    Potassium 419mg12%
    Carbohydrates 38g13%
    Fiber 3g12%
    Sugar 6g7%
    Protein 16g32%
    Vitamin A 941IU19%
    Vitamin C 4mg5%
    Calcium 300mg30%
    Iron 2mg11%
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

    🍴Serving

    This pasta dish is on the heavier side, and it's quite filling and rich in calories.

    So, I absolutely love it with a light salad and tangy dressing to balance off the flavors.

    I recommend a salad such as the plain green leaf salad, carrot salad, cauliflower salad, or a broccoli radish salad.

    perfect baked ziti casserole close up

    🍱 Storing

    Store leftovers in an airtight container in your fridge for up to 4-5 days.

    Warm it up again in your microwave in a microwave-compatible container, or place the ziti 5 cheese into a baking dish and reheat in the oven.

    You can also prep this dish from A to Z and freeze it for another day altogether.

    Then just place it frozen into the oven to defrost and heat up and cook until hot enough.

    Yet, I don't recommend freezing this pasta dish because it will change the consistency of the pasta and cheesy sauce.

    💭 FAQs

    Does five cheese ziti al forno have meat?

    No, it's a meatless pasta dinner meal.

    How can I add meat to this?

    You can add ½ a pound (about 220 grams) ground cooked meat to the finished sauce, or you can add sliced leftover ham to the sauce. I sometimes cut wiener sausages into slices and add that to the sauce.

    👁️ More Pasta Dinner Meal Ideas

    • Johnny Marzetti
    • Chicken Alfredo Fettuccine
    • Gnocchi Pomodoro
    baked five cheese ziti al forno pn image
    1.8K shares
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    I am Helene, and I created Masala Herb in 2011. Here you will learn to cook with spices and herbs. I share from scratch, international food recipes and my mission is to teach you to cook flavorful food at home. Read More…

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    Comments

      4.78 from 9 votes (9 ratings without comment)

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    1. Katherine A says

      June 04, 2023 at 7:58 pm

      Is it 1 cup each of every cheese like 8oz cream cheese, 1 cup mozzarella etc? Also what is the last cheese emmental?
      Thanks
      Katherine

      Reply
      • Helene Dsouza says

        June 05, 2023 at 9:51 am

        Hi Katherine, no it's 1 cup of cheese in total, and a little of each cheese is added to that cup for variety. The same goes for the cheese topping. Emmental is a Swiss cheese. You will recognize it on its holes. You can buy emmental at walmart, they have the French President brand, which I can recommend. You can substitute Emmental with cheddar too or Swiss Gruyere cheese.

        Reply
    close up of homemade 5 cheese ziti al forno
    baked served 5 cheese ziti al forno

    Welcome

    Hi there! I'm Helene and here you will learn how to cook with spices and herbs. Discover global food and learn to season your food like a pro. Read more about my work and mission or head over to my food ingredient space, Unknownbite.com, and our travel space, Paulmarina.com!

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