I saw this recipe online, and I was going to be making food for someone who loves pasta, so I thought I’d give it a try. It is basically super dressed up spaghetti baked like a lasagna. I was curious to see how spaghetti worked in this format.
The recipe calls for marinara sauce and you could totally use from scratch sauce for this but I used my favorite jarred sauce with some added onion, garlic, seasonings and ground beef. You can also use 50/50 ground beef and Italian sausage for the sauce.
You basically prepare this like you would a lasagna. Make the spaghetti, make the sauce, make the cheese mixture, and then layer it all in a pan with parmesan.
The cheese layer for this is made with cream cheese, sour cream, and either ricotta or cottage cheese (I used ricotta). I was worried this might be a rich, but I guess that is why it is called million dollar spaghetti 🙂
After you bake the pasta for about 30 minutes, you let it cool down for a full 15 minutes so that you can cut it into squares. I think this would probably be easier to serve with a different pasta shape, but there is something satisfying about the spaghetti in it.
Million Dollar Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 16 oz spaghetti
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 onion minced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 24 oz pasta sauce
- 3 tbsp butter
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup ricotta
- 2 cups shredded moz
- 2/3 cup grated parm
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350. In a large skillet over medium heat cook the beef and season with salt and pepper. Drain the grease. Add the onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add the sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes and then set aside.
- Combine the cream cheese, sour cream and ricotta and season with salt and pepper.
- Cook the pasta according to directions and drain well.
- Put half the pasta in to a 9×13 pan (I used 2 8×8 pans). Cover with cheese layer. Add the other 1/2 of the noodles. Top with the meat sauce. Cover with the shredded moz and parmesan. Bake for 30-40 min until bubbling and browned.
- Wait 15 minutes and then cut into squares and serve.