Olive Garden Five Cheese Ziti Copy Recipe

I love Olive Garden and the five cheese ziti is the meal that I always order when I go. Sometimes copy-cat recipes are just okay, but I thought that this recipe was spot on. Here is where you can find the original.

If you enjoyed this blog you can find a copy-recipe for Olive Garden's Lasagna Rollata Al Forno here from my September 2012 blog.

Ingredients:
Ziti Sauce
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups alfredo sauce
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 tablespoons Fontina cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon garlic pepper seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Ziti Topping
3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons romano cheese, grated
3 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped

Other Ingredients
1 lb dry ziti pasta
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded


You know me, I didn't actually buy all of the required cheeses, I just used a shredded Italian cheese blend from the store to replace the Fontina and Romano.

Mix together sauce ingredients.

Mix together topping ingredients.

Spread some sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, I lined mine with foil just to save myself some clean up.

Add pasta.

Add remaining sauce and gently mix until pasta is coated.

Top with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Add topping mixture.

Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes.

Serve.

Mmmm, cheesy goodness.

Ignore any thoughts about how bad this recipe is for you... it's okay to indulge every once in a while. This recipe was fantastic, it tasted just like my Olive Garden favorite and it was much cheaper to make in bulk than it was to buy in the restaurant. Have you ever found that some foods taste better as leftovers? Even though this was great fresh out of the oven, I think it was even better for lunch the next day.