Recipe: Gluten-Free Baked Ziti Redux

Last year I shared this recipe for Baked Ziti that my kids go nuts over. They request this dish all the time, but I don’t always have the time to put it together. Yes, it freezes & reheats nicely, but my days have been super busy lately, so finding time to make it the first time around has been rough. My crock pot has become my go-to cooking appliance on Tuesdays, so I started to brainstorm about how I could make baked ziti in the crock pot. Would it cook right if I just threw the dry pasta in with the other ingredients?

I consulted Stephanie O’Dea’s blog for more information. I figured if anyone knew about cooking pasta in the crock pot, it would be Stephanie.  Sure enough, she did have a recipe for Baked Ziti. I did consult her recipe and used some tips from it and the comments section and decided to wing it. I would never know if it worked if I didn’t try it, right?  Worse thing that happens is it doesn’t work & I have to throw something together.

Crock Pot Baked Ziti Recipe

• Trader Joe’s brown rice penne (16 oz bag)
• 1 jar of Prego Three Cheese pasta sauce (save jar)
• 1 container ricotta cheese (15 oz)
• 1 bag Kraft Italian Five Cheese Blend (8 oz)
• Parmesan cheese
• Pam cooking spray

Directions:

1. Spray crock pot with cooking spray.
2. Add dry pasta, sauce & ricotta cheese; mix well.
3. Mix in 3/4 of the bag of shredded cheese.
4. Put remaining cheese on top & sprinkle some parmesan over the top.
5. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water to the Prego jar, shake & pour over the top of the casserole.
6. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or until top starts to brown.
7. Enjoy!

This worked out much better than I thought it would!  The pasta was cooked, not crunchy & not mushy.  The only thing I would change is to serve with a little warmed sauce on the side.  I don’t think I would add it to the casserole to cook because the pasta was cooked perfectly.  I did open the lid once to push the pasta down with the back of a spoon, otherwise I left it closed.

Here is a picture of the finished product in the crock pot (you can see the spoon marks on the side!). 

Have you ever cooked pasta in the crock pot?  How did it work for you?