Loaded Baked Rigatoni Recipe With Beef

Baked rigatoni with a little twist!

A perfect rigatoni pasta bake is made of tender noodles, a perfectly seasoned meat, and for me, a thin layer of melty mozzarella.
If you stop at that, you are just fine. But with the addition of a few slices of roasted eggplant and tomatoes on top, this baked rigatoni with meat sauce and veggies is the ultimate one-pan dinner. It is far easier to assemble than lasagna, but just as satisfying!
Into meal-prep? You can absolutely prepare this pasta bake a day in advance and pop it in the oven when you’re ready! (more on this below)

Rigatoni pasta

Rigatoni are short and wide tubes of pasta with ridges on the outside. I love using rigatoni for a hearty pasta bake like today’s recipe; they’re satisfying and can hold up well in a baked pasta dish – no mushy or overcooked pasta here. Plus, the ridges on the outside of the rigatoni tubes help the them to grip the chunky sauces, and the large insides allow a good amount of sauce to penetrate inside the tubes.

What’s the difference between rigatoni and penne?

If you’re thinking what other pasta can be used in this baked rigatoni dish? The closest answer is penne. But while penne and rigatoni have similarities, they are also quite different. Penne is a short pasta that is cut on a diagonal and is smooth on the outside. It is a tube-like shape, but the tube is narrow. Rigatoni is larger than penne pasta, has a distinctive large tubular shape, and little ridges all around the outside of the pasta. So, like I said earlier, rigatoni is one of the best kinds of pasta for allowing the sauce to collect inside the tube and hold onto even more sauce with the outer ridges.

Rigatoni bolognese

What makes this rigatoni recipe extra special is the meat pasta sauce! A thick and perfectly-seasoned tomato sauce with lean ground beef, onions, garlic and a trio of spices: paprika, nutmeg, and rosemary. You can make the sauce a night or two in advance, which is a great way to save time but also allow the flavors to meld!

Ingredients for baked rigatoni

All the ingredients in this baked rigatoni are layered. But like my Spanakopita-Style Baked Mac And Cheese, I approach the casserole in a no-fuss, rustic way. Here are is what you’ll need to make it:

For the meat sauce: one pound lean ground beef, onions, garlic, paprika, nutmeg, and rosemary. Crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. You can use ground turkey or Italian sausage, if you prefer. For the pasta: One pound of rigatoni, cooked to just al dante or even slightly before, this way it doesn’t get overcooked in the oven. Cheese: about 6 to 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella. I like just a thin layer on top that will bubble and melt nicely for comfort and flavor. You can add more cheese to your liking. For the Vegetables (optional): one large eggplant, sliced and broiled, and one large tomato are added as layers to finish this dish. This is totally optional, but really completes this pasta bake. Fresh basil leaves for garnish! This a pop of bright green and fresh herby flavor that is the perfect way to finish this dish.

How to make baked rigatoni

(print-friendly recipe with ingredient list below) Making this baked rigatoni with beef takes a few simple layers. You will essentially make the sauce and cook the pasta to al dante. Then you can assemble the pasta, sauce, cheese (and vegetables, optional) in your casserole dish to bake. Here is how:

Make the pasta sauce. Here, you’ll simply saute onions and garlic in a bit of good extra virgin olive oil. Add your ground beef, and make sure you break it up well. Cook until the beef is fully browned. Season with salt and pepper and spices. Add the canned tomatoes and allow the sauce to simmer for a good 15 to 20 minutes Cook the pasta. Get your rigatoni noodles (or penne or ziti) in a large pot of boiling salted water and cook to al dante or even a little bit before, this way, the pasta will still hold its nice shape after baking. Broil eggplant slices (if using). This is totally optional, but if you are adding the eggplant, once you salt it and allow it to sweat a bit, then you’ll simply brush it with olive oil and stick it under the broiler briefly until it is tender. Assemble the pasta casserole. Grab a large baking dish and begin layering! Put some of the pasta sauce in the dish first, add about half of the pasta, eggplant (if using), more sauce, then add the layer of mozzarella and fresh tomato slices if using. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes. Since everything is cooked, your pasta bake won’t take very long, but your goal is to get the cheese melting nicely on top. I like the pasta tubes to even char a bit and the cheese to bubble nicely, so I use the broil function very briefly to achieve this.

Prepare ahead instructions for baked rigatoni

Yes! You can prepare this pasta bake in advance and layer everything in your baking dish, then simply cover and refrigerate until the next day when you are ready to bake. Or, I prefer preparing the sauce in advance but I like to cook the pasta just before assembling everything together. If you are using eggplant, you can prepare and broil the eggplant slices ahead of time as well.