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 penne 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.
Jump to:
Penne Pasta Bake: What To Know & Recipe Highlights
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Ingredient Tip: You can use whatever marinara sauce you want. I typically make my own homemade spaghetti sauce but when I'm in a hurry, I love using Classico Italian Sausage Pasta Sauce with peppers and onions. It's so good with this dish!
- Meat Substitutions: I've made this with both ground turkey, ground chicken, and Italian style ground beef. The Italian ground beef adds a ton of flavor. You can also use a plant base meat substitute. It adds a ton of flavor!
- Time Saving Tip: You can make this up to 1 day ahead of time! Just follow the instructions in the recipe card below and then store the dish in the refrigerator covered with aluminum foil and bake it within 24 hours.
- Leftovers, Storage & Reheating: Store leftovers in a covered dish and refrigerate for 2-3 days. To reheat, bake at 350°F covered with foil for 15-20 minutes or until warm. For a quicker option, microwave individual portions with a splash of water, covered with a damp paper towel, in 30-second intervals.
🛒 Ingredients You'll Need
- Ground Beef - for more flavor and moisture, use a higher fat ground beef like 85%. If you want a healthier version, use 93% or 96% ground beef.
- Penne Pasta - you can use any type of pasta you like, but penne is my favorite for this recipe. Rotini and Cellentani shaped pasta also works well.
- Pasta Sauce - store bought or homemade both work great.
- Eggs - used as a binding agent and adds extra protein.
- 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 - I use a yellow onion because it adds the most flavor. White onions also work.
- Garlic - skip the jarred version and use fresh garlic cloves. They add a ton of flavor and mixes well with the onion and green pepper.
- Italian Seasoning, Salt, Pepper - flavor enhancers. Using a course 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.
👩🏼🍳 Here's How To Make It...
Step 1: Start by preheating the oven to 350°F. Using a sharp knife, 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.
Step 2: 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.
Step 3: 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.
Step 4: Grease the 9x13 baking dish with olive oil or butter until lightly coated and then pour the mixture into in and spread evenly. Sprinkle on top the remaining 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Step 5: Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve.
Look at that cheese pull. Nothing beats a good cheese pull! A good baked penne with meat sauce is the absolute best comfort foos and you're going to love every single bite of this family favorite recipe!
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email to receive this recipe, along with weekly food inspiration!
🙋🏼♀️ Recipe FAQs
Make sure you 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.
Yes! Follow the steps below in the recipe card 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 bake it, let it thaw in the refrigerator for 6-7 hours and then bake in the oven according to the instructions below.
🥗 What Should I Serve With Penne Pasta Bake?
🍝 More Pasta Recipes You'll Love!
If you tried this penne pasta bake, please leave me a comment and a 5 star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and let me know how it turned out!
📧 Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter, so that you don’t miss out on any of my delicious recipes!
Easy Penne Pasta Bake
Equipment
- 9x13 baking dish
- large pot
- large bowl
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 package instructions. Important Note: Most package instructions for penne pasta provide a cooking time that results in al dente pasta.
- 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 fat after you finish browning 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
- Noodles: 8 ounces of uncooked penne pasta will yield about 3 cups of cooked pasta. 8 ounces of uncooked penne pasta is half a box.
- Pasta Sauce: You can use whatever marinara sauce you want. I typically make my own homemade spaghetti sauce but when I'm in a hurry, I love using Classico Italian Sausage Pasta Sauce with peppers and onions.
- Meat Substitutions: I've made this with both ground turkey, ground chicken, and Italian style ground beef. The Italian ground beef adds a ton of flavor. You can also use a plant base meat substitute. It adds a ton of flavor!
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email to receive this recipe, along with weekly food inspiration!
Bree
I only have one egg and very picky eaters who won’t eat the peppers, what about a can of drained tomatoes instead?
Amanda Mason
You can try! Never deviated from the recipe I created. Let me know how it turns out!
Barb
Turned out very dry, but I added sauce when serving. Maybe too much pasta for that much sauce in the recipe?
Amanda Mason
Hi Barb! Try using less noodles. I typically have way more sauce than I need when I make this one. But reducing the pasta will help. Try that and let me know how it turns out. How did you like the flavors?
Laura
Have you ever made this with gluten free pasta?
Amanda Mason
I have and it works really well. Brown rice pasta does not hold up that well but other gluten free version do.
Dae
Hi Amanda. This recipe looks so good. But can I make this without baking and just simply combining the cooked pasta and the sauce, omitting the eggs? Thank you!
Amanda Mason
You can, yes! Baking it does meld everything together but it's good both ways. Just like you said....omit the egg. Let me know what you think!!!
Dae
I’ve made this last weekend and it was a hit. I added mushrooms and more cheese. Thank you Amanda!
Amanda Mason
I love hearing this, thank you so much!! Great adds, by the way!!
Cindy Fresh-Davis
Looks like an easy recipe. What size jar of spaghetti sauce? And is it 4 cups penne pasta before cooking or 4 cups cooked penne pasta? Thank you.
Amanda Mason
Hi Cindy!! I just updated the recipe card for you so it's more clear but you will use a 16 ounce box of uncooked penne pasta, which is about 4 cups of uncooked penne. I use a 24 ounce jar of store bought spaghetti sauce, pick your favorite brand.
Cindy
Thank you for updating the recipe Amanda! This recipe turned out very good - Will make it again!
Amanda Mason
Hi Cindy! I'm so glad to hear that it turned out so well for you!! Definitely a repeat recipe, for sure!
Susie
Why do the instructions mention onions, but the ingredient list does not contain them?
Amanda Mason
Hi Susie - No Onion in this recipe.
However - if you want to add onion, you can. You can also add mushrooms. It's a versatile recipe.
Mandy
Hi, I love this recipient but I have really picky eaters but love pasta, will there make a difference if I take out the green peppers???
Amanda Mason
A slight difference, yes. But you can totally take them out. It will taste more like a traditional marinara pasta if you remove them. Enjoy!!
Stephanie
Bomb dot com
Wife doesn’t like pasta but loves this stuff
Second time making it tonight
Thank you
Amanda Mason
Hi Stephanie! Yeah! I am so glad it turned out well and that your wife liked it!
Gary
Barilla past was recommended. After the recipe was originally posted in 2012 Barilla made very homophobic comments. A boycott of Barilla by those supportive of the gay community is encouraged.
Amanda Mason
Oh...I did not know that! Thank you for letting me know and I will update my post to remove their name. Thank you!
Gary
I am trying the recipe tomorrow for a roll playing murder mystery called “Pasta, pistols and passion” for a 17 year olds birthday. Cast of characters are New York Italian. I’ll leave feedback about the response.Thank you for your rapid and thoughtful response to my comment. Stay well.
Amanda Mason
No problem at all! And HOW FUN!! Please let me know how it turns out and I can't WAIT to hear how the murder mystery goes! So fun!
PatriotMomof6heteroproud
Why must we bring politics into a recipe post? But since you did, I used pork sausage in lieu of beef since we can’t afford to buy beef under the Biden administration. I would’ve used whatever kind of pasta that I had on hand but I actually did happen to have a whole case of Barilla penne since I buy in bulk whenever I can, to prepare for the inevitable economic collapse that is coming.
Aubrey West
I really love pasta either with beef, pork or chicken! I must try this. Thanks!
healthy food recipes