Italian Ziti Medley

This baked ziti skips the usual red sauce route and goes full creamy with a from-scratch cheddar and Parmesan bechamel. Italian sausage coins, sliced mushrooms, and green pepper strips give it substance and a savory backbone that stands up to all that cheese.

The sauce comes together like a classic white sauce: butter, flour, milk, stir until thick. Blending the cheese in while the sauce is hot keeps everything smooth. If the cheese goes into a lukewarm sauce, it clumps and turns stringy.

Stirring the hot cooked ziti directly into the cheese sauce before it hits the casserole dish is smart. The pasta absorbs flavor as it sits, so every tube is coated inside and out. That final layer of cheddar on top melts into a golden cap during the 30-minute bake.

Pro Tips

• Brown the sausage hard. You want caramelized edges, not steamed gray meat. That fond on the bottom of the pan adds flavor to the vegetables you cook next.
• Cook the ziti one minute short of the package time. It finishes cooking in the oven and won’t turn mushy.
• Cover the casserole while baking to keep the sauce from drying out. The cheese on top still melts beautifully under the lid.

Variations

• Swap Italian sausage for spicy chorizo and add diced roasted red peppers for a smoky kick.
• Use sharp white cheddar and a handful of Gruyere for a more complex, nuttier cheese sauce.
• Make it vegetarian by dropping the sausage and doubling the mushrooms with a mix of cremini and shiitake.