True story, I refuse to eat regular spaghetti. Now don’t get me wrong, if I am a guest at someones house and that is what they are serving, I will not be rude, I will eat it. You will understand why I don’t eat regular spaghetti anymore after you have made my Baked Spaghetti Casserole. This recipe is one of the very first recipes I ever created and it’s one that I make almost monthly. It is loved by everyone I have ever made it for. It makes regular spaghetti look like spam compared to prosciutto.
This spaghetti has a traditional spaghetti sauce, a tomato based marinara with ground beef. This is one recipe where I typically don’t make the sauce from scratch, I tend to use my favorite store bought brand as I’ve found it doesn’t make too big of a difference. It starts with a layer of spaghetti sauce, then a layer of spaghetti noodles, then a layer of a cream cheese mixture with chopped onions and green bell peppers, another layer of spaghetti sauce, a layer of Italian cheese and then it’s topped with crispy fried onions. It is literally one of my favorite homemade dinners of all time. Every time I make it, I fall in love with it again. And it makes great leftovers!
Tips & Tricks:
- You can substitute ground turkey in place of the ground beef and low fat cream cheese in place of regular cream cheese for a lighter option.
- I like to use the Barilla Protein Plus+ spaghetti noodles for added protein.
- If you don’t like onions, omit them and use double the amount of green bell peppers.
- If you aren’t going to be eating the entire pan of pasta right away, only put the crispy fried onions on half of the dish. They get soggy after sitting in the fridge. I like to warm up my individual left over portion and then put fresh crispy onions on top when re-eating.
Baked Spaghetti Casserole
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 min
- Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
Description
Not your momma’s spaghetti recipe. Once you make this elevated spaghetti, the plain old version will never be the same. A layer of spaghetti sauce, then a layer of spaghetti noodles, then a layer of a cream cheese mixture with chopped onions and green bell peppers, another layer of spaghetti sauce, a layer of Italian cheese and then topped with crispy fried onions.
Ingredients
- 8 oz spaghetti noodles
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 large jar of spaghetti sauce (26.5 oz-32 oz)
- 1– 8 oz block of cream cheese
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 cups shredded Italian blend cheese
- 2–3 cups crispy fried onions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook spaghetti to al dente according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- In a skillet brown ground beef until cooked through.
- Add spaghetti sauce to the skillet with the ground beef and heat over medium/low just until spaghetti sauce is heated.
- Add diced onions and green bell peppers to a medium sized bowl. Add the butter and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.
- Heat the mixture in the microwave for 5 minutes.
- Carefully remove from the microwave and remove the plastic wrap. Be careful, the steam will be extremely hot!
- Add the cream cheese to the hot mixture and stir until the cream cheese is completely melted and mixed in.
- Using a 9×13 pan, spread 1 cup of the spaghetti meat sauce onto the bottom of the pan.
- Next add your spaghetti noodles and spread them out evenly over top of the spaghetti sauce.
- Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over top of the noodles.
- Use the rest of the spaghetti sauce and pour it evenly on top of the cream cheese mixture.
- Spread your Italian cheese evenly over top of the sauce.
- Cover with tinfoil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the tinfoil and spread the crispy fried onions evenly over the top.
- Return to the oven and bake for 5 minutes.
- Remove the casserole and let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: Spaghetti, Italian, Dinner, Baked Spaghetti, Casserole
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