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This vegetarian one-dish baked pasta with onions, jarred marinara, and mozzarella is a game changer for family pasta night. It feeds the whole family in one baking dish and is done in under an hour with no babysitting the stove required. Easy is the name of the game! You should also try my sheet pan lasagna and high-protein pasta with cottage cheese.
❤️ Why You’ll Love This One-Dish Baked Pasta Recipe
This vegetarian baked pasta is a classic one-dish-and-done meal in my home. It’s super simple and yummy, and my whole family loves it. Cooking pasta in the oven with water simplifies the cooking process–No need to boil water or strain the pasta!
🍝 One-Dish Baked Pasta Ingredients
- 🍝 Pasta: The beauty of this recipe is that there’s no need to cook the pasta before baking it!
- 🧅 Onion and Garlic: Sliced onions and minced garlic enhance the flavor.
- 🍅 Marinara: If you have homemade pasta sauce, feel free to use it. Otherwise, keep things simple by buying your favorite jarred marinara sauce. Primal Kitchen is one of my go-to’s.
- 🧂 Seasoning: Salt, black pepper, dried oregano, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper if you want a little heat
- 💧 Water: Since we’re not boiling the pasta, we add the water to the baking dish.
- 🧀 Mozzarella: Melt shredded mozzarella on top for gooey, cheesy pasta.
- 🌿 Herbs: Sprinkle fresh herbs, like basil or parsley, on top for a little color.
👩🍳 How to Make No-Boil Pasta Bake
- Put Everything in the Baking Dish: Add the pasta, onion, and marinara, followed by the garlic and seasoning. Pour in the water.
- Gently mix everything so that the liquid covers the pasta.
- Bake: Cover the baking dish with parchment or an ovenproof lid and bake at 375℉ for 40 minutes. Stir halfway through to ensure all the noodles are covered in sauce/water so they fully cook.
- Cheese: Remove the pan from the oven, add the cheese, and bake uncovered until the cheese is melted. Top with fresh herbs before serving.
📹 Watch me make this easy one-dish baked pasta recipe.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
🧄 If you need to peel garlic quickly, shake the cloves vigorously in a jar. This trick will remove the skins! And my favorite shortcut way to mince garlic is with this garlic rocker.
🗒 Variations
- Baked Pasta with Meat: Add pepperoni, salami, or cooked ground beef or Italian sausage to the pasta.
🗒 Substitutions
- Pasta: Swap bowtie with ziti, orecchiette, or rotini.
- Vegan No-Boil Baked Pasta: Substitute a dairy-free cheese. You could also skip it altogether.
- Onions: If you don’t like onions, leave them out or sub bell peppers.
- Dried Herbs: Use dried basil instead of oregano.
- Liquid: Replace water with vegetable or chicken broth.
- Cheese: Use half parmesan and half mozzarella.
🍽️ Best served with
- 🥦 Vegetables: Pair the baked pasta with an arugula salad or air fryer broccoli.
- 🍗 Protein: Cook chicken drumsticks or salmon to eat with it.
👝 How to Store Pasta
Leftover pasta will last four to five days in the refrigerator or four months in the freezer in airtight containers. To thaw, place it in the fridge the day before and microwave or bake until warm.
🤔 Common Questions
In most situations, you need to boil pasta and then bake it with the other ingredients. But, in this easy no-boil pasta bake recipe, we add extra liquid (marinara and water) to the uncooked pasta in the baking dish. The noodles will cook in the liquid and soften as they bake.
Lasagna is an Italian baked pasta that uses long, flat noodles and consists of layers of pasta, sauce, and cheese. Oven-baked pasta typically consists of a short noodle, like ziti, and all the ingredients are mixed together.
Most pasta bake recipes recommend covering the dish for most of the baking time so the noodles don’t harden and get crispy. I like to uncover it towards the end to add the cheese and melt it for the last five to 10 minutes.
One-Dish Baked Pasta
Ingredients
- 16 ounces bowtie pasta, uncooked
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 16- ounce jar pasta sauce
- 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt, more or less to taste
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, more or less to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper or chili flake, optional
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Fresh basil or parsley, optional
Instructions
- Preheat over to 375℉.
- Add pasta, onion, sauce, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, Italian herbs, crushed red pepper (if using), and water to a 9” x 13” baking dish and stir.
- Cover and bake for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through to ensure all the noodles are submerged in the liquid. The pasta should be tender, and the liquid should mostly be absorbed when done.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle the top with mozzarella, and return the pan, uncovered, to the oven. Bake for 6-8 minutes until the cheese is melted.
- Remove from the oven and serve with fresh herbs if desired.
