Olive Garden Five-Cheese Ziti al Forno (Copycat Recipe) (2024)

Servings: 10 servings

Author: Alyona Demyanchuk

Ziti Al Forno Olive Garden Copycat:

How to make Ziti Al Forno Olive Garden Copycat:

• 

  Cook pasta according to box instructions; drain, rinse with cold water and coat with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Set aside.

• 

  In a medium saucepan combine the marinara sauce, heavy cream, tomatoes, and sugar. Bring to a simmer and add 1/2 cup of the parmesan cheese blend, 1/2 cup of fontina cheese, and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Stir until bubbly and remove from heat.

• 

  Place pasta into an oven-safe serving dish and ladle sauce over the top. Sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese blend. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top and broil just until the cheese browns. Garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese before serving.

• Cheeses-all parmesan cheese can be used for the three-cheese blend of Asiago, Romano, and parmesan. Italian cheese blends have all 5 kinds of cheese so you can use that too. And Fontina cheese can be replaced with white Monterey Jack cheese.
• To make-ahead or freeze:cook noodles under 2 minutes, then rinse them with cold water and toss the ziti with 2 tablespoons of oil. Transfer to a baking dish and prepare the sauce. Slightly cool sauce before pouring over the top. Do not stir. Cool completely before covering and storing. Keep in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

This Olive Garden recipe happens to be a very tasty Vegetarian dish, but adding meat or seafood are great ways to incorporate extra protein to make a hearty dinner. Here are some add-in ideas:

• shrimp
• grilled chicken
• leftover steak slices
• steamed asparagus
• olives

If lasagna can be frozen then so can later-to-be-baked ziti. However, there is a trick to freezing pasta with sauce. On the other hand, Olive Garden’s pasta comes frozen which all employees have to do is reheat it in the water. So flash-freezing pasta is nice when you have to run a hi-demand Restaurant. But, for those of us who want to have a future meal quickly here’s how;

To Freeze Ziti Al Forno: Cook noodles under 2 minutes, then rinse them with cold water and toss the ziti with 2 tablespoons of oil. Transfer to a baking dish and prepare the sauce. Slightly cool sauce before pouring over the top. Do not stir. Cool completely before covering and storing in the freezer. Freeze for up to 3 months. Wrap in aluminum foil and place it into a bag to prevent frost.

Leftovers reheat well right in the microwave! However, if you want to prepare the ziti in advance and bake for later here’s how;

To make Ziti al Forno ahead of time:cook noodles 2 minutes less than the highest time required. Then, rinse them with cold water and toss the ziti with 2 tablespoons of oil. Transfer to a baking dish and prepare the sauce. Slightly cool sauce before pouring over the top. Do not stir. Cool completely before covering and storing in the fridge until needed.

Storing in the Fridge:the prepared and unbaked ziti can sit up to 3 days. Then freeze or bake as instructed.

Croutons or breadcrumbs are easy to make from any kind of bread (preferably white bread like French or Italian bread loaves.) Take a loaf of bread and cut it into desired pieces or run it through a food processor.

Spread the bread or breadcrumbs over a baking sheet.

Bake: over low heat like 300°F for 10-20 minutes or until bread dries out.

Cool: and store in an airtight container if all ready ground. If baked in pieces transfer to a food processor or freezer bag and crush crumbs finely.

Ziti Alforno is a baked dish made from pasta, Italian Cheeses, and a 5 cheese marinara sauce. These are the ingredients I put into Ziti Al Forno to Copycat Olive Garden’s Version;

• Ziti pasta-the kind of straight-cut pasta Olive Garden uses.
• marinara sauce-the red pasta sauce Olive garden uses for ziti Al Forno.
• heavy cream-the secret ingredient that gives more flavor to marinara sauce and a lighter orange hue.
• diced tomatoes-gives texture and intensifies the tomato flavor.
• sugar-sweetener for the tart tomatoes.
• cheese- the five kinds of cheese to use for this Olive Garden Copycat is mozzarella, fontina cheese (can use Monterey Jack Cheese), parmesan, Romano, and Asiago cheeses. The last three can be bought as a blend and most grocery stores have a mozzarella and fontina cheese blends too, (like Italian cheese blends.)

Topping:

Breadcrumbs:can use panko crumbs, breadcrumbs, or homemade breadcrumbs with or without Italian herbs and seasonings.

Cheese: Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese are the only two cheeses that go on top of the baked ziti with breadcrumbs. The other cheeses are blended into the ziti for a rich and cheesy sauce.