7 Crockpot Baked Ziti Recipes

The first time I tipped a box of dry ziti into a crockpot I was sure I was ruining dinner.

Everything I knew about pasta said big pot, lots of water, plenty of salt.

It works because the pasta drinks the sauce while it softens.

Which is also why it tastes more of the sauce than boiled pasta ever does, and I’ve made it this way since.

Seven versions below.

1. Crockpot Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage

If you only make one of these, make this one.

The fat and the fennel do the seasoning for you, so there’s not much else to think about.

Brown the sausage first anyway.

Raw sausage in a crock leaves a slick of grease on top that never goes anywhere.

Break it up small, smaller than you would on the stove, so you get some in every bite.

Sweet Italian is the safe call with kids at the table.

2. Crockpot Baked Ziti with Ground Beef

Two pounds of dry ziti to one pound of beef, layered in with the sauce and the ricotta.

That’s a lot of pasta, which is why it runs four hours fifteen and why it feeds everybody.

Drain the beef properly.

A crock has nowhere to put grease and it’ll sit right on top of your dinner.

Keep the ricotta in its own layer in the middle and don’t stir it through, or the whole thing goes pale.

3. Crockpot Meatball Pasta Bake

Penne and chicken meatballs here, not ziti and beef.

Same method though, and it’s the one to make when you want the meatballs whole.

Frozen ones are fine, and they actually hold together better over a long cook.

If you’re rolling your own, a small cookie scoop keeps them the same size so they’re done at the same time.

Chicken meatballs dry out faster than beef, so check this one early.

4. Crockpot Baked Ziti with Mushrooms and Spinach

No meat in this one at all.

Mushrooms and spinach carry it, four hours on low, ziti going in dry like the rest.

Cook the mushrooms down in a pan first or all their water ends up in your sauce.

Spinach goes in frozen and squeezed out, or fresh right at the end where the heat wilts it on its own.

5. Cottage Cheese Crockpot Baked Ziti

Cottage cheese in place of ricotta.

People try it for the protein and then keep doing it for the texture.

Full fat only.

Low fat weeps water into the sauce as it heats and you’ll see it.

If the curds bother you, run it through an immersion blender first.

Honestly, once it’s hot it reads a lot closer to ricotta than it does cold.

Nothing else about the build changes.

6. Crockpot Chicken and Spinach Ziti

Three and a half hours, six servings, raw chicken breast going in at the start in chunks.

It comes apart against the side of the crock at the end, and a pair of meat shredder claws makes that about a minute’s work.

Use thighs if you’re not going to be standing there at the three hour mark.

Breast goes from done to stringy fast, and there’s no coming back from it.

Spinach last, so it keeps some color and doesn’t go gray on you.

7. Crockpot Pepperoni Pizza Ziti

Pepperoni goes on once the cheese has melted, and the edges crisp up.

Put it on early and it just curls into a puddle of grease.

Underneath, it’s the same marinara and mozzarella as everything else here.

It runs long at five and a half hours for eight servings, so this is a full crock, not a half one.

Black olives and banana peppers if you want to keep going with the pizza thing.

Notes on the Cheese

Low-moisture mozzarella, not the fresh kind packed in water.

Fresh mozzarella lets all that water go as it melts, and a covered crock has nowhere to put it, so you end up with a puddle on top.

Whole milk stretches more, part skim holds together better over a long cook.

Pick based on whether you’re serving this in scoops or in squares.

Ricotta comes out of the tub wetter than it looks, and a few minutes in a sieve keeps that out of your sauce.

Put the top layer of cheese on when the pasta’s nearly done.

Cheese that sits at heat for hours splits into oil and solids, and there’s no fixing it once it has.

Then put a rotary cheese grater on the table and let everybody finish their own.

Tips for the Lid and the Liquid

Every time you lift the lid, the crock loses heat it takes ages to get back.

So stop checking.

Condensation collects under that lid and drips straight onto the cheese, which is why the top looks wet even when the pasta underneath is perfect.

A clean tea towel stretched under the lid for the last stretch catches it.

Layer the dry pasta so nothing pokes up above the sauce line.

Anything the sauce isn’t touching stays hard, no matter how long you run it.

Edges cook faster than the middle in every crock, and an oval 6-quart cooker spreads the same pasta thinner, which closes the gap a bit.

More Slow Cooker Pasta on the Site

The plain version’s already here as dump and go crockpot baked ziti, and it’s the one to learn before you start adding sausage and spinach to it.

For shapes other than ziti, the easy crockpot pasta recipes roundup covers spaghetti, tortellini and ravioli in the same cooker.

And for the nights pasta isn’t the answer, the quick crockpot dinners with ten minutes of prep need the least attention on your way out the door.