Baked Ziti with Hot Italian Sausage, Swiss Chard, and Crème Fraîche
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A little over a year ago, my neighbor introduced me to The New Basics Puttanesca, a sauce made entirely from pantry ingredients: a can of plum tomatoes, a (whole!) tin of anchovies, a (whole!) jar of capers. After everything—there’s garlic, olive oil, and olives in there, too—simmers together for about an hour, you toss it with hot pasta, and call dinner done.
It’s one of those miracle dishes that materializes seemingly from nothing, a particularly good one to know this time of year, when fresh inspiration can be lacking.
Colu Henry’s Back Pocket Pasta
A few weeks ago, when I opened Colu Henry’s Back Pocket Pasta, I felt like I had opened a book filled with the progeny of The New Basics puttanesca, a cadre of pantry-inspired recipes, but each with a fresh spin: some incorporate seasonal ingredients (brown buttered squash bake with sage, crème fraîche and Fontina), others call for fresh seafood (grilled squid with chilies and mint), many are simple and practical (one pot with spinach and goat cheese), some are jazzed up with crispy capers and bread crumbs. I want to make everything.
So far I’ve made two. I wrote about the alla vodka recipe a few weeks ago, but this baked ziti was the first dish I made—five minutes after the book arrived at my door, I scoured my pantry and fridge, the image of a spoon pulling melty mozzarella from a brimming casserole inspiring the mad search.
Without everything on hand, I, in Back Pocket fashion, improvised: some kale and chard replaced the spinach, heavy cream filled in for much of the crème fraîche, and vegan chorizo stepped in for the sausage. Even with many substitutions, the baked ziti was utterly delicious.
The following evening, I made the baked ziti again, this time more to the letter, for a small gathering of friends (6 adults and 8 children). I’m stating the obvious here, but baked ziti, this one in particular, is so great for feeding a crowd. We gobbled it up with BPP’s croutonless Caesar salad, a perfect side for this hearty dish.
Baked Ziti with Hot Italian Sausage, Swiss Chard, and Crème Fraîche
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 to 10
Description
From Colu Henry’s Back Pocket Pasta
As noted in the post, the first time I made this, I made many substitutions: I only had a little bit of crème fraîche, so I made up the difference with heavy cream. I had a mix of Swiss chard and kale on hand, so I used those in place of the baby spinach. I even used vegan chorizo in place of hot Italian sausage. This is definitely a recipe that lends itself to improvising. I think you could definitely leave out the sausage if you wanted to make it vegetarian.
Regarding tomatoes: I used one 28-oz can of whole plum tomatoes, which I snipped with scissors right in the pan, and 14-oz Pomi crushed tomatoes—I love the Pomi brand—which I measured out using a liquid measure. It’s about 1 3/4 cups. This is just what I had on hand. When I make it again, I’ll use all crushed tomatoes for ease.
Ingredients
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream (see notes)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup grated Pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon (or less if sensitive to heat) crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh oregano (optional)
- 1 pound spicy or sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
- one 28-oz can plus one 14-oz can diced San Marzano tomatoes, see notes
- 1 pound ziti
- 5 oz. Swiss chard, leaves removed from stems and thinly sliced, or baby spinach
- 3/4 pound mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, crème fraîche, egg, and 1/2 cup of the Pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano, if using, and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the sausage and cook until browned, breaking up the meat with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Season to taste, and cook until the sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons of the salt and return to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook for 4 minutes short of al dente according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water.
- Add the greens to the sauce with 1/2 cup pasta water, stirring until it wilts. Remove from the heat. Stir half of the sauce into the ricotta mixture. Add the pasta and toss together to coat. Pour the pasta into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Top with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle the mozzarella (I poke some of these cubes below the surface a little bit) and remaining Pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano over the top and bake until the cheese starts bubbling, about 20 minutes.
- Set the oven to broil and broil until the cheese and pasta are browned in spots, about 5 minutes more. (Note: keep a close watch the entire time—a minute or two might be all it needs.) Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American, Italian
Keywords: baked, ziti, sausage, chard, easy, winter
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
118 Comments on “Baked Ziti with Hot Italian Sausage, Swiss Chard, and Crème Fraîche”
I love pasta, especially gooey, cheesy, tomatoey pasta, but at last, we are empty nesters and my husband travels most weeks, so I seem to be doing mostly vegetable dishes for myself. Lately it’s been garlic roasted broccoli with Parmesan or creamed Kale which I sometime through some einkorn pasta into. We just moved to Florida and we have a nice little farmers market that is opened year round and I’m just getting my new garden going. I have fallen in love with vegetables since I started growing my own!
We mix uncased sausage, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, garlic and onion together with a little white wine and serve it over pasta or rice. This is our go-to meal when we don’t have a plan.
hi alexandra!(funny we have the same name 😉 I stumbled upon your site a while ago while looking for a bread recipe and happened to notices that your photos are AMAZING! do you have any lighting tips? thanks!
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Hey! Sorry for the delay here. Thanks for the kinds words—means a lot! I always shoot in natural light, and I have a great north-facing window that I set my table up in front of. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other specific questions.
I’ve never met a pasta that I didn’t like. One of my favorites is penne with vodka sauce. Would love to win a copy of this cookbook!
My favorite back pocket pasta is Marcella Hazen’s cauliflower pasta with anchovies, garlic, parsley & chili peppers. I’d love to win the book!!
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ooh, yum! sounds so good.
Marcella Hazan’s pasta sauce is always a winner in our house. It’s so good with sausage added with what hamburger. Keep up the good cooking. ❤
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Your recipe for chicken thighs and legs with 1/3 cup each of olive oil, white wine and Parmesan cheese is always a hit.
So happy to hear this!
spaghetti squash with a quick meat sauce!!
Hard to pick just one. Here is my simplest. Saute` onion in a little olive oil. Add garlic and crushed red pepper.
Toss with pasta of choice. Add a spoon of pasta water. Add salt & fresh ground pepper to taste. Add a good handful of fresh grated cheese and chopped fresh parsley. We call white pasta. It is a blueprint.
If I want to switch it up I add capers or tomatoes or sweet peppers or broccolini or ham & peas or sun dried tomatoes or Kalamata olives or Sicilian green olives or mushrooms or tuna, etc, etc, etc. Just don’t add too many ingredients! The idea is to keep it simple!
If a back pocket recipe means one solely made up from on hand pantry ingredients, I would say mine is tuna hotdish and coming in right behind would be goulash. Simple in my head recipes that can always be gussied up or down depending what’s available in the fridge or pantry.
Clam linguine! I use canned clams, so everything comes from the pantry except fresh parsley!
greek style pasta—with olives, feta, sundried tomatoes, and whatever else that may be lying around
My favourite oh-crap-its-supper-time meal is pasta, bacon, peas & plain yoghurt. Any pasta. Substitute the bacon for sliced ham/cold cuts/sausage meat, even Vienna sausages sliced. No peas Gasp!? Ok then chopped french beans, or edamame, or hmmm what else is green…broccoli florets. Yes, that’ll work. Ok. I haven’t got yoghurt….lets grate some parmesan over the top. Oh and there’s a bit of sour cream toss that in.
I cook the pasta, toss the green things into the cooking water abut 5 or 10minutes before the pasta is done. Cook the meaty things. Drain the pasta. Add the meaty thing. Add the dairy thing. Stir. Season. Consume. 20mins. Tops. Toddler hanger averted
My favorite back pocket recipe is called ‘Fridge Soup’. When my kids were small they needed a name for everything. I would serve supper and the chorus would start, “What’s that?” When it was time to clean out the fridge, I would fry some onions, add some sliced mushrooms, then what-ever other limp vegetable I found in the fridge, chopped roughly to 1″. Once I had some brown going on (yumm, love brown) I would add any meats I found, again chopped small enough they couldn’t identify whether it was hamburger or pork chops. When it was warmed through I’d add a cup or two of leftover potato water. Two of my four are lactose intolerant so I didn’t add dairy there, but cheese or sour cream went on the table for the rest of us to thicken our soup with. Everyone loved it. And I still make it, although with only two of us here now, it makes enough I can freeze a couple of tubs and have quick meals ready at a moment’s notice. That’s really cheap, leftovers of the leftovers. I’d love to try out this cookbook. Pasta dishes of all sorts are popular around here.
My husband makes a mean pasta dish using bacon and the cherry tomatoes we grow in the summer. Dare I say it’s the only reason we grow tomatoes every year. 😉
My quick pasta ia mix of milk and broth (3 cups), 4 cloves garlic, bit of butter – add 8 oz pasta. Cook. Toss with parm, add baby spinach, peas, other veg or no veg. Yum. Would love to win book!!
Yum!
My favorite quick dinner is pasta with a spicy tomato and sausage sauce-so easy and fast!
To be honest the only recipe we have tried so far was the Smoky Pasta alla Vodka. It was heavenly! We are big pasta lovers and would use this cookbook constantly. Thank you for a chance to win a copy! Greg M.
My favorite bbp is simple Cacio e Pepe. I could eat my weight in it. Occasionally, I try to “health it up” and use whole wheat angel hair instead…
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Oh my goodness. I need this book. It sounds like what I do anyways on “oh %#$! I still need to make dinner nights” but with a little elegance and more of a guarantee of things tasting amazing at the end of frantically getting dinner in front of kids. My go to is a hodgepodge of onions, garlic, tomatoes, kale, sometimes sausage, and definitely whatever cheese is in the fridge. It’s not terrible but this book could really up my game. Trying the baked pasta tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes!
My favorite back-pocket pasta came when I spent a weekend at a friend’s place. I arrived in time for dinner, and offered to cook rather than have her order in. She said she didn’t have anything, but I found a can of diced tomatoes, a can of condensed tomato soup, a single shallot, diced garlic in olive oil in the fridge and dried herbs in the cabinets – and all that plus spaghetti became something out of nothing.
I put a pasta sauce called “Matriccina’ over on Food52 because it is a masterpiece of flavor and texture ready in about 30 minutes pulled from the pantry plus a little frozen-makes-it-easier-to-cut prosciutto. This originally comes from Marcella Rosene’s Seattle take out shop Pasta and Co which I understand has been sold and sadly, this sauce is not invariably on the menu. This is an absolutely awesome sauce. Ironically, my copy of The New Basics Cookbook sits right under the 3 Pasta and Co cookbooks. Matriccina is in Pasta and Co By Request copyright 1991. That means in over 25 years I have yet to make a better sauce.
Nancy, I cannot wait to try it!! Here’s the link for everyone else who is interested: https://food52.com/recipes/52225-matriccina-sauce
I need to check out these books. Thanks!
Marcella Hazan’s Sauce and ANY pasta!!!
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My favorite back pocket pasta dish is one i learned from watching Lydia’s Italy. We call it pancetta pasta but she had a different title for it. It’s pancetta, cannelini beans, spinach, garlic, and pasta. So easy and so good.
Sounds SO good!!
My back pocket dinner is a migas/chilaquiles since old package of corn tortillas never go bad! Everything goes in 1 pan, brown onions and assorted veggies and then strips of tortillas in a large pan, salsa, greens , leftover meats, eggs, lentils and most anything else can be added as some tortilla edges crisp up while others become soft and savory. Quick, comforting and healthy or splurge with cheeses and cream to make it decadent. It works with Mexican/Latin flavors but also can go Italian ( verging towards polenta) or Middle Eastern
I’d have to say mine is spaghetti with salsa verde!
Yum! My go-to/back pocket recipe is a “sheet pan” dinner. It’s not my favorite, but it gets the job done!
Pasta with great olive oil and fresh shaved Parmesan!
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My back pocket recipes are always pasta–always, always, always if I don’t have a meal plan or leftovers, my mind immediately goes to “Guess I’ll just have to make some pasta–score!” My favorite back pocket is whatever conglomeration of vegetables I have leftover in the fridge (such as bell peppers, onion, spinach, and even celery) diced and sautéed in olive oil and seasoned with red hot chili pepper flakes, basil, black pepper, and a little salt. Then I mix it into pasta and sprinkle some parmesan on top. It’s light, filling, and delicious!
My favorite “back pocket” sauce is probably Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with butter. Although, the chicken and cabbage sheet pan dinner recipe of yours I made the other day might become just one of those back pocket dishes!
So happy to hear this, Sonia!