Meatless Baked Ziti with Red Kuri Squash

Meatless Baked Ziti with Red Kuri Squash, mushroom, flavorful tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. This recipe is special for two reasons; 1) A lite no-meat take on everyone's favorite comfort food - Baked Ziti; 2) and a baked pasta recipe with a squash that you don't have to peel. Yes! Red Kuri Squash has edible skin. It is also loaded with vitamins, and has delicate chestnut kind of flavor. Perfect to welcome fall.

I flavor the no-meat sauce with mushrooms, parmesan, herbs, and spices. It can be made a week ahead which makes this meatless Ziti dinner even perfect for weeknights!

So, let's make some No Meat Baked Ziti! Shall we?

Whenever I plan a meatless version of classic meaty recipe... I pay special attention to adding lots of flavor. Honestly, this is the only way my family's picky meat-lovers like a no-meat main course. How about yours?

To make no-meat Tomato Sauce flavorful I do following:

Good Quality Tomato Sauce:

To make baked ziti without meat, I use a good quality tomato sauce. I have an amazing recipe of Tomato Sauce. When time pressed, I only buy Rao’s Marinara Sauce. One of my favorite, by far. Even Food Network's top chef such as Ina Garten use it. Hands down it’s flavor is always spot-on. In-fact, I even re-created one of Rao’s spicy marinara sauce - Arrabbiata. (it is pretty close to original, if you like to try).

Meaty Vegetarian Additions:

I also fortify sauce with fresh herbs, spices, sauteed yellow onion, kuri squash, and meaty mushrooms. In this recipe, I used two kinds of mushroom, crimini and button. For smooth texture pasta, I chop the mushrooms in food processor. This makes mushrooms disappear in sauce almost like minced meat. No one need to know this is meatless Baked Ziti. :-)

Why Kuri Squash and not others?

Kuri squash's skin is edible. Drum roll!!!

It is not very heavy or thick squash. Just like a medium Acorn Squash, Kuri is easy to slice. It freezes well and cooks fork-tender in just 15 minutes. Plus you don't have to peel the skin. Actually, skin of squash is full of vitamins and good for you. It also gave meatless baked ziti some texture.

On contrary to it's name, Kuri is actually orange in color, and gets even brighter orange when cooked. Below are two pictures of Red Kuri Squash - Whole, and sliced. Now, you can easily find it in pile of squashes, in Farmer's market.

Friends, this fall bring home so Red Kuri Squash. Simply slice, and cook! Add to salads, soups or make some meatless Squash Loaded Baked Ziti.

To cook Red Kuri Squash, you can either boil or microwave it.
I slice the squash in half. Remove and discard the seeds. Bring a pot of water to rolling boil. Season with salt. Add squash halves into water, or chop squash into bite size pieces then add to water. Boil until just fork tender. Discard water and use squash as needed. (I even freeze some to use another day).

Note: Check Microwave Method in recipe directions.

Lite Baked Ziti:

Baked Ziti is a classic baked pasta recipe, often loaded meat and cheese such as Ricotta and Mozzarella. My meatless version is certainly a good option for anyone on vegetarian diet. Also, great for a change of flavor for meat lovers. 

When I planned this recipe, I decided to go lite on cheese. The vegetarian sauce is not heavy as meat. So I replaced ricotta with 1/2 cup parmesan. Sauce is also packed with flavor, and parmesan gives this perfect bite. A layer of sliced baked Mozzarella Cheese and garnish of fresh basil is just perfect. Serve a bread on side for scooping the sauce.

Make Ahead:

Sauce can be made ahead up-to one week. (which I do all the time.)

Also, you can assemble sauce with pasta and freeze to bake later. (Follow up-to Step 6 in Recipe Card.) That way prep work is reduced to 2-3 minutes. Just take out of freezer, thaw, bake and enjoy!

I hope you enjoying week. don't forget to pin this recipe to try later.

Wish you a wonderful day ahead. -Savita x.