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Change up your typical spaghetti dinner with this easy and delicious baked spaghetti.
Spaghetti is one of my favorite childhood food memories. It was one of my mom’s go to meals when we were growing up. Today’s recipe is a fun twist on my favorite homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce. Instead of the usual ground beef, I spice it up with some ground Italian sausage.
Make Ahead Dinner
Baked spaghetti is easy, delicious and fun to eat. The process is simple and can easily be done ahead of time and refrigerated to make dinner time easier. It is layered with spaghetti noodles, cheese and meat sauce. This recipe does use small curd cottage cheese and I have to tell you I am NOT a fan of cottage cheese, but I promise you will never know there is cottage cheese in this!
How to make Baked Spaghetti
- Make the meat sauce.
- Cook your spaghetti noodles to an al dente stage. Not too soft. You don’t want them getting mushy when you bake them in the oven.
- Layer half of the noodles in the bottom of a greased pan. Then layer in half of the meat sauce mixture. Followed by all of the cottage cheese and half of the shredded cheese.
- Repeat the process, except without the cottage cheese. There is only one layer of cottage cheese.
- At this point you can put it in the refrigerator to bake later in the evening or even the next day. Or put it right in the oven.
- Bake at 350 degrees F covered with foil for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.
You can use a big spoon to serve it or cut it into pieces with a knife and scoop it out with a spatula.
And the final step? Serve and enjoy!
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Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 lb. spaghetti noodles
- 1 lb. mild Italian sausage
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 jar 32 oz. of your favorite meatless spaghetti sauce or homemade version
- 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 2 eggs
- 4 Tbsp. butter melted
- 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- 2 cups Italian blend cheese I used Monterey Jack and Colby, shredded
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease a 9 x 13 pan
- Cook spaghetti in boiling water until al dente.
- In a large pan cook sausage and onion until meat is browned and onion is soft. Drain
- Stir in spaghetti sauce and seasoned salt and sugar if you’d like sauce a bit sweeter like I do.. If using a store bought sauce I like to add some extra spice – add in basil, oregano and parsley.
- Mix together eggs, Parmesan cheese and butter in a bowl.
- Mix in spaghetti noodles and stir to coat.
- Place half of noodles in bottom of baking dish
- Top with cottage cheese and half of the other two cheeses.
- Top that with half of meat sauce.
- Place remaining noodles on top.
- Top with remaining meat sauce.
- Top with remaining cheese.
- Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.
- Remove foil and continue to bake until cheese is melted and golden brown. About 20 minutes
Nutrition Facts:
W. Lo says
It was scrumptious! It was definitely a different style of making spaghetti. My family enjoyed it. Thanks for the recipe ????
Leigh Anne says
So glad to hear your family loved it. It’s fun to be a new twist on a classic, isn’t!
Laverne says
I just made this and popped in the refrigerator to cook and serve tomorrow. Cannot wait to see how it will taste it looks so good.
Leigh Anne says
Enjoy dinner!!
Jackie says
Hi Leigh Anne
What brand of spaghetti sauce do you use?
Jackie says
Hi Leigh Anne
Are these herbs dried or fresh?