Healthy Baked Ziti
Comforting and delicious Healthy Baked Ziti packed with veggies, flavorful turkey sausage and makes the perfect weeknight meal the whole family will love! Leftovers guaranteed!
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There is nothing more comforting than than a bowl of warm, cheesy baked ziti, am I right?? This baked ziti recipe has all the flavor and heartiness you want in a classic ziti dish, but is made healthier with lean turkey sausage, protein-packed cottage cheese and a variety of fresh veggies. Easy to make your family will love this! My 4 year old gobbled it right up!
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- The ultimate comfort food lightened-up that the whole family will love!
- Packed with veggies, three types of cheeses and high in protein.
- The secret to this baked ziti is combining both marinara sauce and vodka sauce!
- Easily customizable for your family’s preferences.
- Always feeds a crowd with plenty of leftovers!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- ziti noodles – the perfect tube shape pasta to hold on to all that sauce and cheese, feel free to use gluten-free pasta as well.
- sauce – the secret to the incredible flavor of this sauce is using a combination of marinara sauce and vodka sauce! I used Rao’s brand for both.
- cottage cheese – this is in place of ricotta cheese, but you’d never know! Packed with protein and makes this ziti so creamy.
- more cheese – we’re also adding in a mixture of mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese for even more cheesy flavor!
- veggies – I used a combination of chopped onion, zucchini, mushrooms and spinach, but feel free to use whatever vegetables you like best.
- turkey sausage – I prefer using flavorful turkey sausage as it is leaner than regular sausage or ground beef and has more flavor than ground turkey.
- garlic – you can use fresh chopped garlic or minced garlic from the jar.
- seasonings – you’ll need Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper for this recipe.
- fresh basil – the perfect herb to finish off this dish!
If you want to make this with homemade marinara sauce, check out my simple marinara sauce or this loaded veggie tomato sauce to pack in even more vegetables!
How to Make Healthy Baked Ziti
Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and coat a 9×13 baking dish with a little nonstick spray.
Step 2: In a large skillet over medium-high heat, drizzle a little olive oil and brown the turkey sausage, cooking until crumbled and slightly cooked through.
Step 3: Next, add in the chopped onion, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and salt/pepper. Sauté everything together until the veggies are tender and then add in 1 cup each of the marinara sauce and vodka sauce. Let that simmer while you prepare the pasta.
