5 Best No Boil Pasta Bake Recipes

If you’re looking for an easy-button solution to dinner (without ANY compromise of flavor), we’ve got you. These no boil pasta bake recipes are as delicious and effortless as it gets!

What is a pasta bake?

Glad you asked! Pasta bakes are the all-star of the easy dinner arena. Each of these recipes calls for dry pasta and a few other flavor-boosting ingredients (think: feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil for the Baked Feta Pasta) that combine in a casserole dish and cook in the oven together. Yes, you read that right. The DRY (uncooked) pasta goes into the oven with all of the other ingredients and comes out perfectly cooked and delicious. How great is that?!

Pasta Bake Recipes

From creamy chicken Alfredo to mac and cheese, there’s a pasta bake for everyone on this list. Find all of our no boil, easy-button pasta bakes below.

Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake

Ingredients

• 12 ounces of penne pasta 
• 30 ounces of alfredo sauce
• 1 ½ cups of chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1 ½ pounds of chicken breast
• 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of Balanced Bites Italian Blend (or 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning + 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of pepper
• Parmesan cheese, for garnish
• Fresh parsley, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Season the chicken. Cube your chicken into approximately 1” pieces and season it with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. 
3. Prep the pasta. To a 9×13 casserole dish, add the pasta, alfredo sauce, chicken broth, and lemon juice. Stir to combine, then add the chicken and mushrooms and give the ingredients one more stir to ensure everything is well incorporated. 
4. Cover and bake. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. 
5. Garnish. Remove the foil carefully, the steam will be hot! It may look like a lot of liquid, but the alfredo will set after a few minutes. Top with parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.
6. Serve and enjoy!

Easy No Boil Pasta Bake with Sausage

Ingredients

• 12 ounces of penne pasta
• 24 ounces of red pasta sauce (your favorite)
• 1 ½ cups of chicken broth
• ½ cup of heavy cream or milk
• 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt
• ½ teaspoon of pepper
• 12 ounces of pre-cooked Italian chicken sausage, sliced into ½-inch coins
• 9 ounces of frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed of excess liquid
• 1 ½ cups of shredded Italian cheese

Instructions

1. Add the ingredients to a 3-quart, 9×13 baking dish. Simply add all ingredients but the spinach and cheese (so, noodles, sausage, broth, pasta sauce, seasonings, and heavy cream) to a 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. Stir them together. Mix everything together in the dish until the sauce is fully combined, then spread into an even layer.
3. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. This is important! The foil needs to be on very tight to make sure that the pasta can steam. If too much steam gets out, the sauce will start to evaporate and the pasta won’t cook properly.
4. Bake for 40 minutes. Once the pasta is covered, bake it at 400 F for 40 minutes.
5. Stir in the spinach and top with cheese. After 40 minutes, you’ll remove the pasta from the oven, take off the lid, and stir in the spinach. We opted to add the spinach in at the end so that it doesn’t wind up brown and overcooked. Then, sprinkle the cheese over top.
6. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Return the pan to the oven to bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is browned and bubbly, then remove from the oven and serve!

Baked Feta Pasta

Ingredients

• 12 ounces of dry pasta (penne, bowtie, rotini, or elbow are all great choices!)
• 3 cups of broth or water
• 1 (8-ounce) block of feta cheese
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• ½ teaspoon of sea salt (plus more to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 2 minced cloves of garlic
• ¾ ounce of fresh roughly chopped basil (approx. a ¼ cup)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Add the block of feta to the baking dish – place the block of feta cheese in the middle of the dish.
3. Add pasta + broth – add the dry pasta to the baking dish (around the block of feta), pour the broth over top the uncooked pasta, and carefully stir the pasta and broth together (being careful not to bump any noodles under or on top of the feta) to make sure that all of the pasta is submerged in the liquid.
4. Add the cherry tomatoes, EVOO, salt, and pepper – sprinkle the cherry tomatoes over top of the noodles and drizzle everything with the EVOO, salt, and pepper.
5. Cover tightly + bake – cover the baking dish with foil as tight as possible, and bake at 400°F for 40 minutes.
6. Add the garlic and basil + stir – once finished baking, remove the foil, add the minced garlic and fresh basil, and stir everything together until well combined. Serve and enjoy!

Video

Pesto Chicken Pasta Bake

Ingredients

• 12 ounces of penne pasta
• 22 ounces of pesto
• 1 ½ cups of chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 8 ounces of mozzarella pearls
• 1 ½ pounds of chicken breast
• 8 ounces of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained
• 1 tablespoon of Balanced Bites Italian Spice Blend (or 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning + 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F. 
2. Season the chicken. Cube your chicken into 1” pieces and season with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. 
3. Prep the pasta. To a 9×13 casserole dish, add the pasta, pesto, chicken broth, and lemon juice. Stir to combine, then add the chicken and sun-dried tomatoes and give the ingredients one more stir to ensure everything is well incorporated. Finish it off by placing the mozzarella pearls evenly throughout the dish.
4. Cover and bake. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. 
5. Serve and enjoy! Remove the foil carefully, the steam will be hot! Serve and enjoy!

Easiest Oven-Baked Mac and Cheese

Ingredients

• 12 ounces of elbow pasta
• 3 cups of milk
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 1 teaspoon of dried parsley
• ½ teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 4 ounces of cream cheese
• ½ cup of heavy cream
• 3 cups of shredded cheese
• ½ cup of bread crumbs

Instructions

1. Preheat the Oven – preheat the oven to 300°F.
2. Combine the Pasta, Milk, and Salt – add the pasta, milk, and salt to a 3-quart baking dish and stir to combine.
3. Add Some of the Butter – slice two tablespoons of cold butter and place over top of the macaroni + milk mixture.
4. Cover and Bake – cover the dish with a fitted lid or aluminum foil as tightly as possible (this is important…the tighter the better!), then bake for 30 minutes. 
5. Combine the Butter, Breadcrumbs, and seasonings – while the macaroni bakes, combine the other 2 tablespoons of butter (this time melted), ½ cup of breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder.
6. Stir in the Cheese – after 30 minutes, remove the macaroni from the oven and take off the lid or foil covering. Stir in the cream cheese, heavy cream, two cups of shredded cheese and the black pepper. 
7. Top + Bake – sprinkle the remaining cup of cheese over top of the macaroni and cheese, followed by the breadcrumbs, then return to the oven and bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes, until the breadcrumbs and cheese are browned on top.
8. Serve + Enjoy!

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