There is no need to pre-cook pasta for this Easy Meatball Pasta Bake – everything bakes up in one pan for an easy and delicious dinner the whole family will love.
One pan meals are a blessing for those busy weeknights that you don’t have a lot of time to stand over the stove. While This Easy Meatball Pasta Bake is an easy one pan meal, it does not sacrifice flavor.
It’s comforting, delicious, and something the whole family can enjoy. I mean, who doesn’t love pasta with meatballs?
This dish does not require any pre-boiling of your pasta. Instead, the pasta bakes up in a delicious marinara sauce and broth, soaking up all the delicious flavor as it cooks.
We always batch cook homemade meatballs so we have a freezer stash for recipes like this, but there is no shame in using up a quality store-bought version for an easy option. Easy and delicious is our goal for most of our meals and it is exactly what this dump and bake meal is.
While this one pan version of pasta with meatballs does require a longer cooking time than just cooking the meatballs and boiling the pasta separately, I love it because I can just set the timer and walk away. I don’t need to continuously check on the meal, so I am free to take care of other things while dinner cooks. The bonus is it only leaves me with one cooking pan to clean, too!
Why we love this recipe
- It’s delicious! This recipes takes all the deliciousness of a pasta with meatballs dinner and turns it into a dump and bake meal.
- You don’t need to stand over the stove watching water boil. Dump everything in a baking pan and let the oven do the hard work.
- You only need to clean one cooking dish! No need for multiple pans here!
- You can easily change things up to suit your own tastes or ingredients you have on hand. You can add veggies or swap out proteins (e.g. use chicken meatballs).
Ingredients in Easy Meatball Pasta Bake
- Olive oil: to grease the baking dish.
- Pasta: uncooked rigatoni pasta or similar. If you don’t have rigatoni available, fusilli or penne make a great substitution.
- Meatballs: fully cooked, thawed if frozen. I love using our homemade meatballs for this recipe but frozen, pre-cooked meatballs can also be used. If you are using frozen, just be sure to defrost them in the fridge overnight before using them in this recipe. Frozen meatballs will prevent the pasta bake from heating up in time, altering the cooking time and resulting in uncooked pasta within the recipe time frame. If you forgot to thaw your meatballs overnight, it’s better to cook the meatballs in the oven separately. Then, when you stir in the grated mozzarella cheese, you can add the meatballs too. I use beef meatballs, but any type of meatball can be used.
- Marinara sauce: Choose your favorite marinara sauce to ensure a delicious flavor for the dish.
- Chicken broth: In addition to the marinara sauce, broth is what the pasta will cook in. We use broth instead of water since it adds more delicious flavor to the dish.
- Seasoning: Italian seasoning, onion powder (or garlic powder), salt and black pepper.
- Cheese: Mozzarella is stirred into the pasta bake and also used to top it for a delicious cheesy layer. In addition to the mozzarella, we love serving it with some grated Parmesan cheese.
- Herbs: Fresh basil or parsley, for serving. This is optional.
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to make Easy Meatball Pasta Bake
- Prep. Preheat oven to 425F and grease a 8×13 baking dish with the olive oil.
- Mix ingredients and bake. Add the pasta, meatballs, marinara sauce, broth, and seasonings to the baking dish and stir to combine. Ensure the pasta is submerged in the liquid, then cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and stir everything together. Check to ensure the pasta is cooked al dente or to your desired tenderness. If not, you can return the baking dish to the oven and cook for 5-10 minutes longer or as long as needed (adding more hot broth or water if liquid is needed).
- Add the mozzarella. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Then, stir in 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella. Top the pasta bake with the remaining mozzarella cheese and return to the oven to bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Serve. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Top with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs if desired.
Storing leftovers and reheating
Once cooled, leftovers can be placed in an airtight container and stored in the fridge.
To reheat this pasta bake, you can do so in the oven or stove top. For reheating in the oven, place leftovers in a greased pan and heat them at 350F until heated through. To reheat stove top, add the leftovers to a pot and heat over medium heat, stirring often. You will need to add a splash of broth or water to thin out the sauce again when reheating it.
What to serve with Easy Meatball Pasta Bake
I love serving this meatball pasta bake with a crisp side salad. We especially love this Healthy Caesar Salad with this pasta meal. I also love to have a slice of crusty bread (or garlic bread) to soak up the extra sauce! If you don’t have any bread on hand, you can whip up my Easy Dinner Rolls in the time this dish bakes.
FAQs
Yes, you can make this pasta bake, but you will need to make some modifications. The frozen meatballs shouldn’t be added to the pasta as it bakes in the oven (the cold temperature will affect the cooking time). Instead, you will need to bake the frozen meatballs separately and then stir them into the pasta bake when you stir in the mozzarella cheese.
This recipe should work as is for pasta substitutions that are similar in size and cook time to rigatoni pasta. Penne and fusilli are good substitutions and should cook in the same amount of time.
If you opt for a smaller pasta shape (like orzo), you will need to adjust the baking time as well as the amount of liquid you cook. For example, you can use 2 cups of orzo pasta with 4 cups of liquid (2 cups marinara sauce and 2 cups broth) and bake for 35 minutes to make 6 servings of this pasta bake.
Other easy one pan meals:
Pork Tenderloin Sheet Pan Dinner
Easy Boursin Chicken Orzo Bake
Crispy Oven Baked Fish Recipe
Sheet Pan Sausage Dinner
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Easy Meatball Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 16 oz rigatoni pasta uncooked, or similar (e.g. fusilli)
- 14 oz meatballs fully cooked, thawed if frozen
- 3 cups marinara sauce
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder or garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella divided
- Parmesan Cheese and fresh basil or parsley optional, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F and grease a 8×13 baking dish with the olive oil.
- Add the pasta, meatballs, marinara sauce, broth, and seasonings to the baking dish and stir to combine. Ensure the pasta is submerged in the liquid* (it is okay for the meatballs to be sticking out but the pasta should be in the liquid to ensure it cooks evenly), then cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove the foil and stir everything together. Check to ensure the pasta is cooked al dente or to your desired tenderness. If not, you can return the baking dish to the oven and cook for 5-10 minutes longer or as long as needed (adding more hot broth or water if liquid is needed).
- Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Then, stir in 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella. Top the pasta bake with the remaining mozzarella cheese and return to the oven to bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Top with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs if desired.
Notes
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
