Vegetable Baked Zitti

Pasta is super easy, especially something liked baked zitti where it is pretty much just sauce, noodles, and cheese thrown in a casserole dish and baked for almost an hour. The basic style of the recipe is also what makes it fun to play with when you have vegetables from your CSA laying around your fridge. 

Picnic with baked zitti

Our baked zitti ended up being layers of rigatoni, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, garlic, onion, zucchini, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. The trick here is to make sure you keep enough sauce around the pasta that they can keep in the moisture. 


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and allow the zitti to cook about 40 minutes covered, and then 20 minutes uncovered to allow the cheese on top to cook a little or brown depending on preference. 


It is really good when served with garlic bread or salad. We choose garlic bread in order to ward off vampires. (Just kidding...)


The best of this meal is that it comes in a single dish with almost no clean up required. This means it is perfect for a picnic dinner outside! We spread out a blanket on the lawn outside the dorm, breathed in some good ol' fashion fresh air, and ate a deliciously simple vegetable baked zitti.