My favorite is on the simple end —no meat or veg, just pasta, sauce, and cheese.
Dollops of ricotta and cubed mozzarella inside, and grated mozzarella and maybe some parmesan too on top,
Of late, I prefer pink sauce to red sauce (in general) though it’s not purist. Doctored jarred or simple homemade (no spices, just garlic and onion, no gilding of the lily).
(If you’re making a large batch, consider loaf pans for portioning and freezing.)
Many years ago, I was making a giant batch for a shower, and came across a technique that eliminated cooking the pasta first, which was a huge save given the size of the batch: Soak the pasta in water for 30 mins or more, which rehydrates it, then assemble and bake — the water to cook the pasta has already been absorbed by it, so it just cooks in the oven. I might have thinned the sauce a bit out of distrust 
but it all worked out as claimed.
For a long time after, I would always soak my short pastas this way to cut down on the cooking time.
This will probably elicit a strong response, but I prefer rigatoni to ziti in this dish, and mezzi rigatoni most of all
