Recipe: Tasty Sharon's Slow Cooker Baked Ziti

Sharon's Slow Cooker Baked Ziti. We are a family of pasta lovers through and through. Yet I always like to find different variations on the usual. Just like my Baked Chicken Spaghetti.

And since pasta dishes cook more quickly in the slow cooker than meat dishes, you can enjoy a bowl of this hot 'baked' ziti in just a few hours. Yes, you really can make baked ziti (well, "baked" ziti) in your slow cooker. And the result isn't just good — it's amazing. You can have Sharon's Slow Cooker Baked Ziti using 10 ingredients and 12 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Sharon's Slow Cooker Baked Ziti

1. It's Half of a large onion (chopped).
2. Prepare 2 Lbs of ground beef.
3. You need of (2) 24oz jars of pasta sauce.
4. It's 32 oz of ricotta cheese.
5. You need 1 of egg (beaten).
6. You need 1 teaspoon of salt.
7. Prepare 1 teaspoon of pepper.
8. It's 2 Lbs of ziti pasta (uncooked).
9. You need 6 cups of colby monterey jack cheese.
10. It's of Non stick cooking spray.

What it lacks in the crispy-edges department it gains in the ooey-gooey comfort-food department: tender noodles coated in marinara and mixed with a double dose of melty cheese. Rinse uncooked pasta, drain, and set aside. Short pasta like macaroni, penne, rotini, and others work best in this Slow Cooker Baked Ziti because they're less likely to clump and stick together. Long pasta cuts like spaghetti and fettucini are doable, but you may have to stir a couple more times in between.

Sharon's Slow Cooker Baked Ziti instructions

1. Brown ground beef and onion in large skillet; Drain fat..
2. Return ground beef to skillet and mix both jars of pasta sauce with ground beef; Remove from heat..
3. In a bowl mix ricotta cheese, egg, salt, and pepper.
4. Turn the slower cooker to high.
5. Spray slower cooker with non stick spray.
6. Spoon the sauce into the bottom of the slower cooker; Enough to evenly coat the bottom.
7. Spoon the ricotta cheese mixture on top of the sauce evenly coated.
8. Pour uncooked ziti noodles on top of ricotta cheese evenly coated.
9. Sprinkle colby cheese on top of pasta evenly coated.
10. Repeat steps 6-9 until you reach the top of slow cooker; making sure the final layer is a generous amount of colby cheese.
11. Put the top on slow cooker; cook for 4 hours or until pasta is tender. Avoid opening the slow cooker while cooking..
12. Enjoy!!.

Turn your slow cooker to high when you add your pasta. Crockpot baked ziti reviews: From Deborah: "Made this as a vegetarian option to the oven baked ziti I was making for a family get-together. Everyone liked this one MORE, even without meat. Thanks for the recipe." From David: "Hi Joy! This dish is brilliant and has become my go-to for pot lucks and easy family meals.

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