This Vegetable Baked Ziti recipe is vegetarian and lower in calories and fat than traditional baked ziti. It's Weight Watchers friendly too!
Before Weight Watchers
This January marks the eighth year that I've been doing Weight Watchers. While my weight has fluctuated since reaching my goal and I'm now actively trying to lose weight again, I really feel like it was joining Weight Watchers that prompted me to learn how to cook and get creative in the kitchen.
Because before Weight Watchers? Our meals were pretty much take out, stir fry, or pasta.
Pasta showed up on the menu at least once a week. I'd make a whole box (!!!) and my husband and I would split it. He'd put lots of sauce on his, while I'd put a little bit of sauce and a mountain of grated Parmesan on mine.
I was under the impression that a ginormous bowl of pasta was a typical serving--after all, that's what most restaurants serve, right? It was a shock to find out that those big boxes of pasta that my husband and I were eating by ourselves are meant to serve eight people. Oops.
After Weight Watchers
One of the first changes I made when I joined Weight Watchers was downsizing those pasta portions.
But clearly, two ounces of pasta alone just wasn't going to cut it. So I started adding vegetables to our pasta. Lots of them. This makes that paltry two ounces of pasta go much further.
And you know what? It tastes so much better that way too.
Using this same philosophy, I revamped my baked ziti recipe, something I occasionally made pre-Weight Watchers—my original version had massive amounts of cheese and pasta.
This version, Vegetable Baked Ziti, has a smaller amount of reduced-fat cheese and fat-free ricotta mixed in to give the casserole a creamy texture.
By adding lots of sauteed veggies, each serving contains less than two ounces of pasta. But it's so good, you won't miss that extra pasta or cheese at all!
Ingredients
- cooking spray or oil mister
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion thinly sliced
- 1 large zucchini halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 8 oz button or baby bella mushrooms sliced
- 8 oz whole wheat pasta penne and rotini work well, cooked al dente according to package
- 1 large jar marinara sauce about 24 oz
- 1 15 oz container of fat-free ricotta cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup reduced-fat Italian blend cheese or mozzarella
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray or oil mister.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add zucchini and mushrooms and cook until softened and liquid has boiled off, about 7 minutes more. Remove from heat.
- Add pasta, marinara sauce, ricotta, salt, and pepper to skillet with vegetables. Stir until well combined.
- Pour pasta mixture into baking dish. Top with cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley before serving, if desired.
Elva says
Sounds terrific. Can this be frozen? Would love to take it to the beach.
Kiersten says
Yes, it freezes very well! You'll want to thaw it in the fridge for a day or two (depending on your fridge temp)--once it's thawed, it can be heated at the same temp and time listed in the recipe.
Amanda says
This might be a silly question but--do you skip baking it the first time if you are freezing it?
Kiersten Frase says
Yes, you'll just assemble the casserole and then freeze it. Not a silly question! 🙂
Nayia says
I made this tonight and it was really good! It was a great way to use up a giant farmer's market zucchini. Thank you!
Kiersten says
I'm glad you liked it--thanks for your comment! 🙂
Jim says
Thanks, This is exactly the kind of question that bedevils us freeze ahead-ers. To cook or not to cook first. Recipes are never very helpful with this.
James Schultz says
Made this on a whim tonight and it tasted fantastic. I cut the amount of cheese roughly in 1/2, and also broiled the whole thing for about 5 minutes at the end, until the top layer was nice and crispy.
Kiersten says
Thanks for your comment--I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Jenna says
Made this tonight for dinner. Yum. Thanks for the recipe.
I didn't realize before I added the pasta that it should be cooked! So, I added some water and cooked it for ~12 minutes extra--turned out right 🙂 That's one way to cut out a step for simplicity!
Kiersten says
Well hey, you successfully eliminated a step from the recipe! 🙂 I'm glad it turned out well for you!
Michelle Hanners says
Do you know what the calories are for this?
Kiersten Frase says
I'm sorry, I don't. Here's a recipe nutrition calculator that might help: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Lynne Johnston says
The recipe looks great!! I plan to try it this weekend. Thanks for sharing all your recipes, I just joined weight watchers and taking pasta off the menu was a sad thing for me so am soo happy to see you successfully can have pasta without overdoing!! Thanks again!!
Kiersten Frase says
Yes, adding lots of vegetables is the best way to stretch out those pasta servings! 🙂
BeeGee says
Will make this ahead of time then transport to host's home for our regular dinner/game night as
a couple of vegetarians there. Can I add some spinach too? Thanks. BG
Kiersten Frase says
I haven't made it with spinach, but I'm sure that would work just fine!
Olivia says
Made this for my friends last weekend! They absolutely loved it!! I was very pleased with how easy it was to make this! Much to my dismay though, there was no leftovers has the boys ate it all!! Argh!! 😉
Kiersten Frase says
I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe! Next time you can double it up and freeze one for later. 😉
Tyler says
I've been making this about once a month since May. Thanks for this recipe!
Rachael D says
Made this yesterday. I ended up with 8 servings. So good!
http://1scale.blogspot.com/2016/04/eating-right-rachael-way.html
Jane says
Hi do you know what the weight watcher points are for this?
Thanks!
Kiersten says
It used to be 7, but that was 2-3 plans ago - I don't know about on the new plan.
zapnear says
Right so I don't know where I went wrong but my pasta came out hard on the edges, like really hard but only on the edges of the dish, should I have added a little water?
Alissa says
Usually the edges of baked pasta dishes like this come out a bit hard, but if it's way too hard, I'd say try a different baking dish. Maybe switch to a metal dish if you were using glass, as metal can get a bit hotter. You could also try covering the dish with foil to keep moisture in, and then uncovering during the last 10 or so minutes of baking, just to get a little browning. I hope that help!
Hannah says
I made this yesterday and it was very good. I am not a huge fan of Ricotta but I still liked it. I measured every single ingredient by weight and my dish ended up being 470 calories per serving which is very good for a pasta dish.
Katie Trant says
Good to know, Hannah! We're glad you enjoyed the dish 🙂
Misty says
Awesome but I added more vegetables corn tomatoes onions shredded carrots delicious thanks for sharing ?
Kelsey says
Made this tonight, and it was delicious! I added extra cheese and broiled it for a minute.
Akhil M says
Wow, I'm already drooling. Thanks a ton for this recipe. I'm sharing this to my colleagues. 🙂