Baked pasta is the ultimate cozy food, a warm and filling dish we never get tired of. In this roundup, we share some of our go-to recipes, including Creamy Baked Pasta with Gruyère and Prosciutto, Pickled Pepper Macaroni and Cheese, and a hearty lasagna. Read on for even more baked pasta dishes we love.
Vegetarian Lasagna "Bolognese" with Plant-Based Meat
This faux lasagna Bolognese delivers all the comforting flavors of the Italian classic, thanks to layers of richly seasoned plant-based meat and a quickly simmered marinara. Cheesy spinach and tender zucchini pack in even more vegetables, which get an extra umami boost from plenty of Parmesan. If you've never cooked with plant-based meat before, trust your instincts and your eyes; it browns as it cooks, just like ground beef.
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Mostaccioli
A hearty meat sauce, lots of melted cheese, and pasta make this dish a crowd-pleaser. Mostaccioli, a smooth, tube-shaped pasta with angled ends, is the go-to here, but penne also works well.
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Pork-and-Ricotta-Stuffed Jumbo Shells
Food & Wine's Justin Chapple amps up the filling in stuffed shells by including ground pork. Use your favorite prepared tomato sauce here.
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Baked Rigatoni with Broccoli, Green Olives and Pancetta
Instead of using tomato sauce, Hugh Acheson makes his version of baked ziti with intensely sweet roasted tomatoes.
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Buttermilk Macaroni and Cheese with Baby Kale
A quick sauté renders baby kale leaves perfectly tender, allowing them to almost melt into the buttermilk-enriched béchamel in chef and cookbook author Alexander Smalls' version of mac and cheese. For a smooth sauce, make sure all of the dairy is at room temperature.
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Kale-Artichoke Stuffed Shells
Cannellini beans add hearty creaminess to these stuffed shells, while mild heat from Calabrian chiles and earthy sweetness from fennel seeds amp up jarred marinara sauce. Cook a few extra pasta shells to have on hand in case some tear during boiling.
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Creamy Tuna Noodle Cazuela
Jarred piquillo peppers and imported canned tuna from Spain add an Iberian twist to the classic American tuna casserole.
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Vegetable-and-Ravioli Lasagna
Fresh spinach ravioli are a clever shortcut for making lasagna: Each ravioli is already a mini layer of pasta, cheese and vegetable.
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Pumpkin Lasagne
No need to roast fresh pumpkin for this dish (although you certainly could); using canned unseasoned pumpkin puree is much quicker, and it works just fine. Like most lasagnes, this one is easier to cut if left to set for 10 minutes or so before serving.
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Baked Orecchiette with Pork Sugo
In Italian cuisine, sugo is a gravy or sauce. Here, chef Ethan Stowell prepares a pork sugo by braising pork shoulder until it almost falls apart, shredding it in a food processor and mixing it with a red-wine-and-tomato sauce. Then, he bakes it with orecchiette under a topping of Parmigiano cheese for a satisfying meal.
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Grandma's Lasagna
F&W's editors tested three different Bolognese-style lasagnas with creamy béchamel sauce before deciding that the definitive lasagna had to have tomato sauce, chunks of meat, shredded mozzarella and creamy ricotta cheese.
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Baked Eggplant Parmesan Penne
Served over pasta, this deconstructed take on Eggplant Parmesan swaps the usual fried eggplant for a sautéed version. Whole-wheat pasta can be used for more fiber.
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Cheesy Baked Pasta with Radicchio
A splash of red wine vinegar balances the richness of this cheesy pasta and magnifies the pink color of the onions and radicchio. Omit the prosciutto to make this a vegetarian main dish.
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Creamy Baked Pasta with Gruyère and Prosciutto
For a simple and ultra-creamy baked pasta, take a cue from chef Ashley Christensen of Poole's Diner: Trade the béchamel for this much easier sauce of heavy cream simmered with plenty of nutmeg and two kinds of cheese.
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Crab Macaroni Gratin
"A glorious amount of crab meat baked with shell-shaped pasta in a three-cheese cream sauce —tangy white Cheddar, nutty Gruyère, and sharp Parmigiano-Reggiano—is no-joke delicious, and trés riche," Food & Wine Cooks contributor Andrea Slonecker says. "That's where the Champagne comes in. The tingly bubbles give your palate an ultrasonic scrub between each creamy, cheesy, blissful bite."
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Pickled Pepper Macaroni and Cheese
Crispy panko breadcrumbs add crunch to this rich and cheesy pasta casserole.
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Shortcut Baked Rigatoni with Meatballs
Dry pasta and meatballs get baked with mozzarella and marinara in this genius shortcut recipe.
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Baked Rigatoni with Eggplant, Tomatoes and Ricotta
"There is no more comforting food in the world than a bubbly pasta dish straight from the oven," says chef Jonathan Waxman. He replaces the béchamel in this traditional baked pasta with lush eggplant. You can substitute whole-wheat pasta if you'd like.
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Chicken Tetrazzini
If you don't want to poach chicken breasts for this version of chicken tetrazzini, you can use three to four cups of meat from a rotisserie chicken instead.
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Après-Ski Lasagna
In this lasagna recipe, Andrea Slonecker says "fresh basil brings brightness, sliced mushrooms lend earthiness and toothsome texture, and ricotta delivers the creaminess between the layers."