Grandma’s Meatless Baked Ziti

My grandma’s vegetarian baked ziti will quickly become a family favorite. Requires only 5 ingredients! Easy casserole style dinner that you can prep ahead or even freeze for later. Hands down the best baked ziti recipe – because Grandma knows best.

One of the easiest things to make for a meatless meal is pasta – and this meatless baked ziti is one of the easiest meals to make for a crowd. This is often made for holiday family dinners at our house, but it is also just a perfect recipe for Sunday night lazy night comfort food.

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I’m kind of surprised this wasn’t the very first recipe I ever posted to the blog. (Though my first post was not surprisingly still in the carb family).

This baked ziti recipe used to be my signature dish.

Whenever I would invite people over for dinner, this was my go-to casserole.

The recipe comes from my grandma (though she wants me to clarify it was passed down from my grandpa’s side of the family in New York) and is so simple and fool-proof, I never saw a need to make anything else.

I still have the original email from her circa 2005 which would have been when I moved into my first college apartment.

Back in those days, I would pop this in the oven along with some Sister Schubert dinner rolls, maybe buy a frozen vegetable dish to heat up to go along with it and I was done.

Even after I started to branch out more and started this blog, I have still made this recipe dozens of times and it is always a home run crowd-pleaser.

Now I’ve just upped my game with homemade marinara sauce, homemade bread, and homemade veggie sides. This vegetarian ziti also pairs really well with a chopped caprese salad, or this hearty veggie quinoa salad.

How to make this easy baked ziti:

Ingredients needed for no meat baked ziti recipe:

• Ziti noodles – a 1 pound box
• Marinara sauce (homemade if you’re feeling fancy), you’ll use 3 cups total
• Ricotta cheese – full-fat ricotta will taste best here. Using fat-free ricotta cheese will take away some of the flavor and creaminess
• Eggs – eggs are added to the ricotta to make it less runny and to help prevent the ricotta cheese from drying out during baking
• Shredded mozzarella – 16 total ounces, whether you grate the mozzarella yourself or get 2 of the 8 ounce shredded bags from the store

Prep time is minimal and feeds an army, or at least 6-8 very hungry people. For dinner parties I usually just make one big casserole dish (14″x10″), but you can also split it into two casserole pans and freeze one to bake later.

If you’re freezing half for later, after prepping the raw ingredients you’ll just cover well with aluminum foil. It should last for up to 3 months in the freezer, and then thaw in the fridge for around 24 hours before baking with normal instructions. If you don’t thaw it first, it will take much longer to cook and will risk burning.

The layers seem like a mouthful (get it? aren’t I funny?) but it’s pretty easy:

a little sauce, half the (cooked) ziti, ricotta cheese mixture, a little more sauce, the rest of the ziti, the rest of the sauce, sprinkle shredded cheese. No meat. Pasta perfection.

See it in action:

Not only is this great for a holiday meal or family gathering, but it also is perfect for any Meatless Monday comfort food meal.

So easy and delicious!

More of grandma’s recipes if you’re interested:

• Grandma’s Pea Salad
• Grandma’s Cheesy Sliders

Like this ziti recipe? You might also like: Spinach Baked Ziti