This penne pasta bake is a quick easy dinner made with a flavorful and delicious marinara meat sauce and lots of mozzarella cheese. Comfort food at its finest!
Creamy sauce and lots of cheese, this pasta bake is an easy dinner to make any night of the week. If you love pasta and you're looking for an easy dinner idea, look no further. This penne pasta bake is about to become one of your favorites.
Just like this beef and bean enchilada casserole, nothing compares to a good homemade casserole. And the same is true about pasta. There's nothing quite as satisfying as a big bowl of pasta. Al dente pasta covered in a saucy marinara sauce topped with fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. It just doesn't get tastier than that. Pop it in the oven to bake and in about 30 minutes, you'll have yourself an amazing dinner.
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Ingredients You'll Need
There's only 6 ingredients needed to make this pasta bake recipe.
- Ground Beef - choose a higher fat ground beef like 85%. It provides more taste and moisture.
- Penne Pasta - you can use any type of pasta you like, but penne is my favorite for this recipe. Rotini also works well.
- Pasta Sauce - use a store bought jar of Italian Style.
- Eggs - used as a binding agent in this baked pasta dish.
- Green Bell Pepper - a key ingredient. If you've never added a green bell pepper to a pasta sauce, you're missing out. It provides a delicate fresh spice taste.
- Onion - yellow onion onions add the most flavor
- Garlic - adds flavor and mixes well with the onion and green pepper.
- Italian Seasoning, Salt, Pepper - flavor enhancer. Using course ground salt and pepper will add even more flavor.
- Mozzarella Cheese - for best results, shred a block of cheese. If you're in a rush, a bag of pre-shredded cheese will work.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
How To Make This Penne Pasta Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Finely chop the green bell pepper, onion, and garlic.
- Add the green pepper, onion, and garlic to a large skillet along with 1lb of ground beef.
- Brown the meat and chopped vegetables until no longer pink.
- While the meat is browning, cook the pasta according to the package directions. You'll want to cook the pasta to al dente so that it's a little undercooked.
- Drain the pasta and set aside.
- Once the meat is done, do not drain. Add the undrained meat mixture to a large bowl.
- Add the drained and cooked penne pasta, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, eggs, and marinara sauce to the bowl.
- Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.
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- Pour the mixture into a 9x13 pyrex dish and spread evenly.
- Sprinkle on top the remaining 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve.
Look at that cheese pull. Nothing beats a good cheese pull. Oven baked pasta is the best and you're going to love every single bite of this family favorite recipe!
Tips For Making The Best Pasta Bake
- Meat Variety - I've made this pasta bake recipe with both ground turkey and Italian style ground beef. The Italian ground beef adds a ton of flavor.
- Pasta Sauce - When I'm in a hurry, I buy a jar of my favorite pasta sauce. You can also make your own homemade sauce. Pizza sauce is also quite tasty with this dish.
- Pasta- I like using penne pasta with this dish, but I've made it with rotini noodles and it's amazing. You can use any medium size pasta you want, but I don't recommend using elbow or small shell noodles. They tend to get lost in the sauce and cheese in this dish. Also - when cooking the pasta on the stove top, cook the pasta to al dente. You want the pasta just a little undercooked so that when it bakes in the oven, the pasta doesn't get mushy.
- Can Pasta Bake be frozen? - Yes! Follow the steps and instead of putting it in a glass pyrex dish, add it to an aluminum or other freezer safe container. Cover with aluminum foil and store in your freezer for up to 3 months. When you're ready to cook it, let it thaw in the refrigerator for 6-7 hours and then cook in the oven for 30-45 minutes, or until done all the way through.
- Can Pasta Bake be made in advance? - Yes! You can make this 1 day before serving. Just store the dish in the refrigerator covered and bake it within 24 hours. Because you are using a medium size noodle, the sauce does not get absorbed into the noodle.
What Goes With Pasta Bake?
Try these salad and bread pairings:
- Romaine Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing
- Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans
- Green Leaf, Pear, and Goat Cheese Salad
- Quick Peppery Cheese Bread
- Cheese Garlic Cauliflower Breadsticks
More Recipes You'll Love!
- Italian Marinara with Meatballs
- Smoked Meatloaf
- Garlic Basil Chicken Pasta with Alfredo Sauce
- Chicken Florentine with Sun Dried Tomatoes
- Mushroom and Chicken Penne with Walnut Pesto
- Lasagna
- Cabbage Roll Casserole
If you tried this easy-to-make penne pasta bake, or any other recipes on my website, please let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I love hearing from you! And, please leave a 🌟 rating while you're there!
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Easy Penne Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 8 ounce penne pasta, uncooked
- 1 lbs ground beef
- ½ green pepper, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- ½ medium onion, finely chopped
- 1½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 24 ounce jar of Italian sausage pasta sauce
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
- Finely chop ½ the green bell pepper, ½ of the onion, and the 2 garlic cloves.
- In a large skillet, add the 1 lb of ground beef, chopped green pepper, chopped onion, and chopped garlic cloves.
- Cook over medium-high heat until meat is no longer pink. Set aside and don't drain.Expert Tip: There is a lot of flavor in this mixture, so don't drain the meat.
- Once the pasta has finished cooking, drain the noodles and put them in a large bowl.
- Add the cooked beef mixture, the entire jar of pasta sauce, 2 beaten eggs, 1½ teaspoons of Italian seasoning, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, and 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Stir until well combined.
- Add the mixture in the bowl to a greased 13 x 9 baking dish.
- Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese on top of the pasta and sauce mixture.
- Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
- 8 ounces of uncooked penne pasta will yield about 3 cups of cooked pasta. 8 ounces of uncooked penne pasta is half a box.
- You will lose a lot of flavor if you drain the beef, onion, garlic, and green pepper mixture. To reduce the fat, use ground beef with a lean-to-fat ratio of 94:6.
- I've made this pasta bake recipe with both ground turkey and Italian style ground beef. The Italian ground beef adds a ton of flavor and pairs well with the jar of Italian sausage pasta sauce.
- If you can't find Italian sausage pasta sauce, you can use any jar of sauce. But you'll lose some of that Italian sausage flavor.
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Sandra
I followed exact and came out dry! Well I used high protein Penna pasta, would that have made difference?
Amanda Mason
Protein pasta may absorb slightly more sauce than regular pasta due to its higher protein content, which can make it more likely of soaking up liquids. However, the difference is usually not very significant. No one has mentioned that to me and I've never experienced it in this recipe. Maybe next time use less noodles than the recipe is called for a see if that helps? Again - this has not been a complaint from anyone.
Danielle M Postell
What’s the oven temp?
Amanda Mason
Step 1 in the recipe cards tell you: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Jamie
I love spaghetti especially when adding cheese to it no one can say no to this, Love it!!!!