This was actually supposed to be a baked ziti, but it turns out ziti is just about impossible to find in grocery stores right now, so I went with a Roasted Vegetable Baked Penne instead. Sometimes you just have to roll with it! This recipe is a very vegetable-forward version of my Classic Baked Ziti, chock full of colorful vegetables, a quick homemade red sauce, and layers of ooey-gooey cheese. This recipes makes a LOT of pasta but the leftovers are awesome and freezable!
Take a Short Cut
This roasted vegetable baked penne is kind of a labor of love because there are so many moving parts, BUT you can take a short cut by using some jarred pasta sauce instead of making your own. Use about one and a half 24oz. jars of store-bought pasta sauce in place of the homemade sauce listed below.
How to Store Leftovers
As I mentioned in the intro, this makes a LOT of pasta. But the leftovers are super yummy, and it makes a really great item to stash in your freezer for grab-n-go lunches or quick dinners on busy nights. After baking, divide the pasta into single serving containers and transfer to the refrigerator. Once fully cooled, you can transfer some (or all) of the containers to the freezer for longer storage. I usually leave as many as I can eat in one week in the fridge and freeze the left. The leftovers can be reheated quickly in the microwave.
What Vegetables Can You Use?
I used a classic mix of zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, and bell pepper so I could have a really colorful mix. If you want to substitute any of these vegetables, here are some other good options:
- Mushrooms
- Eggplant
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
In general you want to opt for softer vegetables for this dish, as opposed to harder root vegetables, but if you do want to include vegetables that are more firm, make sure to cut them into much smaller pieces to help them soften more quickly while they roast.
Roasted Vegetable Baked Penne
Servings 8Ingredients
Roasted Vegetables
- 1 red onion ($0.44)
- 1 zucchini ($0.79)
- 1 yellow squash ($1.11)
- 1 bell pepper ($1.69)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.26)
- ⅛ tsp salt ($0.02)
- ⅛ tsp pepper ($0.02)
Simple Red Sauce
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp butter ($0.26)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($0.79)
- 3 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.12)
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning* ($0.30)
- ¼ tsp salt ($0.02)
- ½ cup water ($0.02)
Pasta & Cheese
- 1 lb. penne ($1.00)
- 15 oz. ricotta ($2.19)
- 2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend**, divided ($1.86)
- 1/4 tsp pepper ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional garnish) ($0.11)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Dice the red onion, zucchini, yellow squash, and bell pepper into 1-inch pieces. Spread the diced vegetables out over a large baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss until all the vegetables are coated in oil.
- Roast the vegetables in the preheated oven, stirring once half way through, for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and the edges are brown and caramelized.
- While the vegetables are roasting, begin the red sauce. Finely dice the yellow onion and add it to a sauce pot with the butter. Sauté for a few minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, salt, and water.
- Stir the sauce to combine. Allow the sauce to come up to a simmer, then turn the heat down to low and let the sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are finished roasting (about 30 minutes).
- In a medium bowl, stir together the ricotta cheese, 1 cup of the shredded Italian cheese blend, and ¼ tsp each of salt and pepper.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the penne. Once boiling, add the penne and continue to boil until the pasta is tender. Drain the penne in a colander, then return it to the pot with the heat turned off.
- Stir one cup of the red sauce into the drained pasta to coat the pasta in flavor. Add the roasted vegetables to the remaining red sauce and stir to combine.
- To layer the casserole, place half of the sauce coated penne in the bottom of a 9×13" or 3 quart casserole dish. Add half of the cheese mixture on top in dollops, followed by half of the roasted vegetable and red sauce mixture. The ingredients do not need to create a solid layer or completely cover the previous layer. Repeat with a second layer of pasta, cheese, and vegetable red sauce. Finally, top the casserole with the second cup of shredded Italian cheese blend.
- Cover the casserole with foil, making sure it doesn't touch the cheese on top. Place the casserole in the oven (still turned on to 400ºF) and bake for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, remove the foil and switch the oven from bake to broil. Broil the top of the casserole to brown the cheese for 3-5 minutes (watch closely as broilers can vary quite a bit from oven to oven). Top with chopped parsley if desired and serve!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Roasted Vegetable Baked Penne
For the roasted vegetables I used one red onion, one zucchini, one yellow squash, and one red bell pepper. You can choose just about any vegetable you’d like (see notes above the recipe for suggestions).
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Dice the vegetables into 1-inch pieces. Place the diced vegetables on a large baking sheet, drizzle with 2 Tbsp olive oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss the vegetables until they are coated in oil.
Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and roast, stirring once halfway through, for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and caramelized on the edges.
While the vegetables are roasting, begin the rest of the casserole. Start with the homemade red sauce. Dice one yellow onion and add it to a sauce pot with 2 Tbsp butter. Sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft.
Once the onions are soft, add one 28oz. can crushed tomatoes, 3 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning, 1/4 tsp salt, and ½ cup water. Stir to combine. Allow the sauce to come up to a simmer, then turn the heat down to low and let it continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are done roasting (about 30 minutes).
While the vegetables are roasting and the red sauce is simmering away, prepare the cheese. Stir together 15oz. ricotta, 1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend, ¼ tsp pepper, and ¼ tsp salt.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Once boiling, add 1 lb. penne and continue to boil until the penne is tender. Drain the pasta in a colander, then return it to the pot with the heat turned off. Add 1 cup of the red sauce and stir to coat.
Stir the roasted vegetables into the rest of the red sauce.
Now that the sauce, cheese, and pasta are done, it’s time to start layering! Add half of the sauce-coated pasta to the bottom of a 9×13″ (3 quart) casserole dish. Next, add half of the cheese mixture in dollops, followed by half of the vegetable red sauce. Each layer will not fully cover the previous layer. You don’t need to spend time trying to spread it out. It will all melt together as it bakes.
Repeat with a second layer of pasta, cheese, and vegetable red sauce. Finally, add the second cup of shredded Italian cheese blend on top.
Cover the casserole dish with foil, taking care not to let it touch the cheese. Bake the casserole for 35 minutes.
After 35 minutes, remove the foil and change the oven from bake to broil. Let it broil for a few minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown on top. Top with a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley for garnish, if desired.
Enjoy!
This tasted great! But I agree with other comments that it is a lot of kitchen time. Be prepared for that if you make your own sauce, and if you do, I recommend doubling the spices. I added some leftover buttnernut squash to my roasted veggies and really liked it! I think I’d add even more veggies next time. I really like the broiling method- it created such a nice top for this!
Made this a few weeks ago, and loved it! I used store bought sauce but would have loved to try making my own. It was great incorporating vegetables like squash and zucchini into a dish, I don’t normally buy those but loved them. Had plenty of leftovers and it tasted great heated up too!
It’s in the oven now, and I can hardly wait! I really had to restrain myself from eating the roasted vegetables straight off the pan.
Yes, a fair amount of work, but a good Sunday meal, as someone mentioned. I like that you can customize the vegetables used…I’d have loved eggplant, but my husband would recoil. I made this with the suggested veggies.
Ayy madon this is good. Makin this for Italian-American Heritage Day today!
Would using small dollops of cream cheese taste too weird on this? I have cream cheese I need to get rid of but don’t want to use in cheesecake etc.
I don’t think cream cheese would work as a straight substitution for ricotta, but maybe if you melted it into the red sauce you’d get a kind of creamy result? There are also a few pasta recipes on the site that call for cream cheese (if you search for “creamy” they’ll usually pop up).
I think if you’re adding it in addition to the other cheeses then yes, it would be great! But I wouldn’t use it in place of the other cheeses. :)
Too blend for me.
Great recipe as written! The only thing I would like more is more veggies. I think I will reduce the pasta and do 1.5x veggies next time (maybe add a couple optional veggies?). I just found myself wanting more veggies.
Yes! This is what I think too, and what I’m doing today! After the veggies roasted there was not much left haha def doubling the veggies this time. Luckily I love vegetables!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! A great Sunday dinner. I used eggplant, red pepper, zucchini, and red onion for my veggies. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Hi Beth/Budget Bytes Team,
Is there a typo on mojoram?
Haha, yep, thank you for pointing that out! :)
How long can the res sauce last in the fridge? Im hoping to make a few bottles of this to last a month
I always suggest about 5 days max for anything cooked. You may get more or less time, but I can’t guarantee anything longer and for food safety reasons.
I have made this recipe (as it was originally posted) many times! I prefer to chop my veggies smaller into more of a dice. I make this in 2 8×8 pans and freeze one. I like a lot of sauce, so the original recipe called for a regular jar and I always use the jumbo jar. I personally would not make a homemade sauce for this recipe as it’s already pretty labor intensive with all the chopping and roasting and then assembly. It usually takes me a lot more time in the kitchen than I prefer, but since I get one meal to freeze, it’s worth it to me.
Hello! if I were to finely shred the zucchini and the squash and drain, do you think it would change up the flavor of the sauce too much? I’m trying to hide “new” veggies in my toddlers meals. They really need to move beyond broccoli and cauliflower smh
I think that would be good. :) I do something similar in my Spaghetti with Vegetable Meat Sauce recipe, which you can check out for inspiration.
Looks good! What meat would be good to add to it?
My father would fuss about a vegetarian meal, so I was thinking about browning some ground beef or Italian sausage and adding it to the sauce and vegetables!
Check out my classic baked ziti recipe, which this is based on, for a meat version. It’s so good! You could always add in a few veggies to that, or do the Italian sausage in this. :)
I bought some Italian sausage for this. Will make it n the next few days. Thanks!
Could a sub for cottage cheese in place of ricotta work…. I really want to make this and have everything expect the ricotta !!
I know some people like to use cottage cheese in their lasagna in place of ricotta, but that wouldn’t be something I’d do, so I think it’s going to be more a matter of personal preference. :)
I used to use cottage cheese instead of ricotta way back in the dark ages before ricotta was widely available. I always made sure to whirl it in the blender until smooth–I don’t think I would ever sub low fat cottage cheese for this, only 4% fat or higher because low fat cottage cheese is kind of stiff in the mouth and doesn’t have a creamy cheesy texture in dishes like this. Of course back when I was using cottage cheese for lasagna, there weren’t any low fat variations–only choices between small or large curd. Ricotta cheese, when it started to appear, was a delicious revelation to me, and while I still like cottage cheese, I love ricotta.
This is a terrific recipe, exactly as written. When I roasted the veggies for this, I added a small diced butternut squash, a head of garlic and a sprig of rosemary to the roasting pan–holding out most of the garlic for other uses. Were I to have added meat, I would have chosen shredded chicken or browned sausage crumbles.. Shrimp would have been delicious, too.
I love this recipe! I do something very similar with jarred sauce often, but I’d love to try this sauce! If I only have a large jar of “whole peeled tomatoes” and no crushed tomatoes, how would you alter the sauce recipe? I also have diced tomatoes and canned tomato sauce, but I wasn’t sure which would be a good substitute.
I would put the can of tomatoes (with juices) into a blender or food processor and whiz until it’s puréed. That should be about the same as the crushed tomatoes. :)