Cheesy Baked Spaghetti combines all the classic flavors of spaghetti with a rich and creamy cheese sauce, making it the perfect meal to feed your family.
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Does your family love Italian-inspired dishes like classic Spaghetti Bolognese, Ravioli, or other yummy dishes? Trust me, you need to add this Cheesy Spaghetti to your dinner rotation! You can also try this creamy, Cheesy Chicken Tetrazzini.
Why this recipe works
Pasta dishes are great for filling bellies like this One Pot Cheesy Enchilada Pasta! With some simple ingredients, you can upgrade your everyday spaghetti into a cheesy, creamy, delicious spaghetti bake! If you want to take it up a notch try this Easy Authentic Ricotta Cheese Recipe. The creamy sauce and melty cheeses paired with the meat sauce with Italian flavors make for a yummy cheesy baked spaghetti casserole.
Ingredients needed for this baked spaghetti
- Pasta: A pound of spaghetti, broken in half.
- Spaghetti sauce: Two 24 oz jars of your favorite jarred sauce, or you can make your own.
- Meat: Ground beef, or ground turkey.
- Onion: A medium white onion, diced.
- Spices and herbs: Garlic cloves, salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and fresh parsley.
- Egg: Helps bind everything together.
- Cheeses: Ricotta cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese.
- Sour cream: Adds more creaminess.
- Step 1: Break pasta in half and cook according to package directions. Once cooked, drain spaghetti pasta and put it back into the pot.
- Step 2: Dump a pasta sauce jar on top of the pasta in the pot.
- Step 3: In a large saucepan, add ground beef and start to brown it.
- Step 4: Add diced onion, cook until browned, and add garlic, salt, black pepper, and cook a few more minutes. Drain grease or excess oil.
- Step 5: Add the second jar of pasta sauce to the beef mixture and cook for another few minutes.
- Step 6: In a large bowl, mix softened cream cheese, ricotta cheese, egg, sour cream, and Italian seasoning together using an electric hand mixer.
- Step 7: In a casserole dish, add half the spaghetti noodles with half of the meat sauce mixture.
- Step 8: Spread half the cheese sauce mixture on top of the pasta, followed by half of the shredded mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese on top of the pasta in the baking dish.
- Step 9: Add the next layer of the noodles and meat sauce.
- Step 10: Finish the pasta casserole with the last layer of cheese before baking.
Recipe Tips
- If you like spaghetti with a lot of tomato sauce, you'll need a 3rd jar of sauce as the spaghetti soaks a lot of the sauce up.
- If your marinara sauce for the pasta is a bit bland, you can add more seasonings like fresh basil along with your parsley or oregano.
- Serve this easy-baked spaghetti recipe with some delicious Ciabatta Garlic Bread.
- Feel free to adjust the amount of meat you use. If you prefer a more meaty sauce, add more ground beef.
Recipe Faq's
Certainly! I like to use ground beef as it's simple and delicious. If you want to make a sauce more like a bolognese, you can use a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage.
If you are looking to go a bit healthier, you could use ground turkey, ground pork, or ground chicken, if desired.
Yes, you can swap out the mozzarella for something else like shredded cheddar cheese. Or, you can make a combination of the two. Make a Mexican spaghetti casserole by using some Mexican shredded cheese and other Mexican-inspired herbs and spices.
Sure, this is a pasta recipe that I love with spaghetti, but you can make this with angel hair, linguine, fettuccini, or any other pasta that you and your whole family prefer.
This cheesy baked spaghetti recipe makes for great leftovers. Place leftovers in an airtight container and keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Freeze leftovers by transferring them to a freezer-safe container and freeze them for up to 3 months. You can reheat leftovers in a baking dish in the oven at 350F for 20 minutes or until warmed thoroughly.
Cheesy Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 16 ounces spaghetti broken in half
- 2- 24 ounce jars spaghetti sauce see notes
- 1 ¼ pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 8 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 3 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- Fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Cook spaghetti to al dente according to the package directions, drain and place back into the pot. Pour one jar of spaghetti sauce on top and toss until coated.
- Heat a large skillet on medium high heat and add the ground beef and onion and cook until browned. Add in the garlic salt and pepper and cook another minutes. Drain any excess grease.
- Pour the second jar of spaghetti sauce on the ground beef and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl using a hand mixer beat on low the softened cream cheese, ricotta cheese, egg, sour cream and Italian seasoning until combined.
- Place half of the spaghetti noodles into the baking dish followed bu half of the meat sauce.
- Spread the cheese mixture on top evenly followed by half of the mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese.
- Place the second layer of noodles on top of the cheese, followed by the rest of the meat sauce and the remaining shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Place in the center rack and bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
- Remove from the oven let cool 10 minutes and garnish with fresh parsley.
Yes, those directions are in the notes 🙂
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Yes about 1 heaping cup.
How much is a serving, one cup.
Yay so happy to hear your family loved it 🙂
This was such a delicious twist on the typical spaghetti, the whole family devoured it even my picky 3 year old! Definitely keeping this one on the dinner rotation.