This copycat stuffed ziti fritta is full of gooey cheesy, handbreaded, and fried until golden brown. Served with your favorite sauce, it makes an amazing appetizer!
½poundziti pastacooked and drained (about ½ of a standard package)
2oz.cream cheesesoftened
¼cupricotta cheese
¼cupgrated mozzarella cheese
½cupgrated Italian cheese blendParmesan, Roman, Asiago
1cupall-purpose flour
3large eggs
1cupbreadcrumbs
5-6cupsvegetable or canola oilfor frying
Instructions
Cook pasta in a large pot of salted, boiling water. Drain pasta and run cold water over it to cool and prevent it from sticking together.
In a small bowl, mix together cream cheese, ricotta, mozzarella, and Italian cheeses.
Transfer cheese mixture to a piping bag fitted with a filling tube tip (such as this: https://amzn.to/3FeS74y). Alternately, place cheese mixture in a Ziploc freezer bag and snip the corner off to make a piping bag.
Place the tip of the piping bag into the tube of the pasta and fill with cheese mixture. Fill as many pieces of pasta as you can until the cheese mixture is used up.
Set up a dredging station by setting out three bowls and filling one with flour, one with eggs (beaten), and one with the breadcrumbs.
Roll the filled ziti in the flour, shaking off the excess. Dip into the beaten eggs, and then roll with breadcrumbs to fully coat each piece of pasta.
Spread breaded pasta on a sheet pan and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes while heating the oil.
Fill a deep frying pan or pot with several inches of oil. Heat over medium high heat, until the oil temperature reaches 350°F. Maintain the oil temperature between 350° and 375°F.
Remove breaded ziti from the freezer and transfer several pieces at a time into the hot oil. Use a slotted spoon to turn the pasta so that the pieces cook evenly on all sides and then lift from the oil when the pieces are golden brown on all sides (less than 1 minute).
Transfer cooked ziti to several layers of paper towels to drain any excess oil.
Serve hot with marinara sauce for dipping.
Storage: Stuffed ziti fritta is best eaten right away while hot. Stuffed and breaded pasta can be prepared and stored in the freezer (in an airtight container) up to 3 months. Cook in hot oil straight out of the freezer.
Notes
The piping tips we used here work especially well to fill the narrow tube of ziti. Rigatoni can alternately be used, particularly if you’re using a Ziploc bag to fill the pasta without a piping tip.
You can microwave the cream cheese and ricotta for 20-30 seconds so that it mixes smoothly and easily with the other cheeses.
Use finely grated cheese so that it is easy to pipe it into the pasta.
These taste almost like eating fried mozzarella sticks. The cheese filling is hot and gooey. The crispy breaded pasta has a little crunch.
Freezing the breaded pasta is not mandatory. It firms up the cheese enough that it is less likely to leak out of the breaded pasta while frying. Even when frozen going into the hot oil, the cheese inside is hot and melty after just a quick minute of cooking. If you’re short on time and have already heated the oil, you can transfer the breaded ziti right into the oil. During testing, there was only one piece of a handful that started to seep out the cheese filling.