Baked Spaghetti

Baked Spaghetti is hearty and family friendly with a crispy cheesy top layer and ground beef filling that your kids will ask for every week!

This Italian Dinner is a more classic version of baked spaghetti, it costs less than our Baked Million Dollar Spaghetti (just kidding, we don’t use cream cheese in this version) and is easier to make than Ultimate Meat Lasagna.

Baked Spaghetti on plate with fork

Baked Spaghetti is the perfect make ahead meal for parents. After you try this recipe, if your kids could vote on dinner every night, you’ll be serving this 4 days a week. And when you do serve it you can even take it from the freezer!

If it’s your first time cooking a baked spaghetti recipe, this is a good one to try. Dinner tonight starts out like a traditional pasta dinner and ends like a hybrid of spaghetti and lasagna. Baking spaghetti instead of just boiling it gives you the crispy, cheesy top layer that lasagna fans love. This easy baked spaghetti is a great middle ground between spaghetti dishes and a Traditional Baked Ziti.

Baked Spaghetti is so much more than just tomato sauce over noodles. This easy recipe is a great meal for weekdays, since you will have leftovers for later dinners. Make it for the whole family and let the kids scoop out what they want (you’ll be surprised how much they eat).

Serve Baked Spaghetti with Garlic Bread, a traditional favorite, and the perfect way to scoop up extra sauce. Try this Italian Salad Dressing drizzled on garlic bread to give it an extra kick .Add some Roasted Green Beans to the mix and roast them alongside the baking noodles. A great way to end a rich dinner is with a light, fluffy Angel Food Cake.

Baked Spaghetti Collage of assembly steps

If you love more classic meals in your dinner rotation than just this baked spaghetti, here are some of our favorite classic dinners:

More Classic Dinner Recipes

Scoop of Baked Spaghetti

How to Make Baked Spaghetti

  • Boil the spaghetti noodles until al dente, or one minute shy of the directions.
  • Brown your meat in a skillet and add in the Quick and Easy Marinara Sauce.
  • Whisk eggs, cheese and butter together and stir in your cooked spaghetti.
  • Layer your spaghetti mixture into a dish with layers of cheese and meat sauce.

What you are making is basically a baked spaghetti casserole. But the best version of one you’ll ever taste. With crispy edges, mozzarella and cottage cheese this is a dish people will crowd the pan asking for seconds.

Baked Spaghetti on plate with fork

Alternatives to Ground Beef

  • Italian sausage: the seasonings in Italian sausage add a kick of flavor to the baked spaghetti.
  • Ground turkey: an alternative to red meat that is delicious and filling.
  • Ground tofu: tofu takes on a lot of the flavor of the sauce, and is a delicious vegetarian option.
  • Jackfruit: This one takes a little more prep, but its meaty texture is hearty and tasty.
  • Mushrooms: Delicious and versatile, mushrooms are great browned in melted butter.
Baked Spaghetti Collage of baking steps

Slow Cooker Baked Spaghetti

If you are going to be out all day and want something ready when you get home, slow cookers are a great way to go. Slow cooking the spaghetti lets it stew in its own juices, infusing it with flavor.

  • Cook the spaghetti noodles in a pot of boiling water until al dente (still firm.)
  • Brown the ground beef in a pan with the chopped onion until cooked through, and then add in the marinara sauce and stir on medium heat.
  • Mix the eggs, cheese and butter together and add the cooked spaghetti noodles.
  • Layer the spaghetti mixture and the meat sauce into the slow cooker, and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.

How to Store Baked Spaghetti

  • Serve: You can leave the baked spaghetti out after serving for no longer than 2 hours.
  • Store: Store Baked Spaghetti, covered tightly, in a fridge for up to 3 days.
  • Freeze: Wrapped well, you can freeze Baked Spaghetti for 3 months.
Baked Spaghetti on plate

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Baked Spaghetti

Baked Spaghetti is hearty and family friendly with a crispy cheesy top layer and ground beef filling that your kids will ask for every week!
Yield 8 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Main Dish
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 yellow onion , chopped
  • 4 cups Marinara Sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
  • 2 cups cottage cheese , divided
  • 4 cups mozzarella cheese , shredded and divided

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 9×13 baking dish with vegetable oil spray.
  • Cook pasta 2 minutes shy of the directions.
  • Add meat and onions to a large skillet on medium-high heat and brown while breaking it apart until fully cooked, about 5-6 minutes.
  • Add in the Marinara Sauce and mix well.
  • Toss the noodles in the salt, eggs and butter.
  • Put half the pasta in the bottom of the baking dish, then add half the cottage cheese, half the meat sauce and half the mozzarella.
  • Top with the rest of the noodles, the rest of the cottage cheese, meat sauce and mozzarella.
  • Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake an additional 15 minutes or until the cheese on top is crispy and golden brown.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 651kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Cholesterol: 162mg | Sodium: 1406mg | Potassium: 855mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 1285IU | Vitamin C: 9.6mg | Calcium: 378mg | Iron: 3.8mg
Keyword: Baked Spaghetti, How To Make Baked Spaghetti
Baked Spaghetti Collage

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

Pan of Beef Baked Spaghetti
Spoonful of Beef and Cheese Baked Spaghetti
Baked Spaghetti in Casserole Dish
Collage of Baked Spaghetti in Pan photos

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the upcoming cookbook: Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients which is being published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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