This Baked Spaghetti recipe has can be made with ground beef, sausage, or meatballs! Top it with lots of mozzarella cheese and bake it right away or save it for a busy weeknight dinner. You can even freeze the assembled casserole for another week!
Don’t forget a side of Garlic Bread with Cheese!
Baked Spaghetti
This cheesy baked spaghetti recipe truly is a life saver. It’s so easy to throw together and it makes a great make-ahead recipe and freezer food.
It’s the perfect comfort food to serve with my Garlic Bread with Cheese! Read on and see how easy it is to make, what ingredients you need, and how you can easily make it ahead of time and pop it in the oven on busy weeknight.
How to Make it
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Boil salted water for spaghetti and cook according to package instructions. Meanwhile, brown ground beef in a skillet and drain if needed. Add onions and peppers, cook until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
Add marinara sauce and stir to combine. I prefer to use my homemade marinara or Rao’s.
Add Ricotta and Parmesan and stir until combined and heated through. Add a dab of cream cheese if desired, then mix in the cooked spaghetti.
Transfer half of the spaghetti to a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Top with 2 cups of mozzarella. Add remaining spaghetti.
Add 2 more cups mozzarella cheese. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is hot and melted. Let sit 5 minutes prior to serving.
Baked Spaghetti with Meatballs
If your family loves the classic spaghetti and meatball combo, you could also make Bobby Flay’s Meatball recipe or my Slow Cooker Meatballs.
Just mix the cooked meatballs into the sauce, combine it with the spaghetti, top with cheese, and bake!
Make Ahead Method
Option 1: Assemble and Refrigerate:
- Cover and refrigerate for up to two days.
- Bake refrigerated casserole at 375° for 30 minutes covered, then for 10 minutes uncovered.
Option 2: Assemble and Freeze:
- Cover with 2 layers of foil and freeze for up to 3 months. These disposable aluminum baking pans are great for the freezer.
- Let frozen casserole thaw in the fridge overnight and bake at 375° for 30 minutes covered, then for 10 minutes uncovered.
- You can also bake from a frozen state and add an additional 1 hour of baking time, covered.
Pro Tip:
If your 9 x 13 casserole dish is filled to the brim, place it on a baking sheet in the oven to catch any overflow, just in case. Alternatively, you can use an 11 x 15 inch baking dish.
Storage
Refrigerator
- Baked spaghetti should be refrigerated and is best if used within three days.
Freezer
- Baked spaghetti makes a great freezer food after it’s been baked. It’s best to wrap portion sizes in foil and place them in a labeled freezer bag.
- To reheat from a frozen state, leave it in the foil and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or more, depending on the serving size.
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Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients
- ¾ lb. spaghetti
- 1 pound ground beef, can also use ground sausage or turkey
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings
- 32 oz. marinara sauce
- 8 oz. Ricotta cheese, equal to 1 cup.
- 2 Tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Parsley, to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions, while waiting for the water to reach a boil, proceed with the below.
- Cook the ground beef in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned and cooked through. Drain excess grease.
- Add the seasonings, diced onions, and peppers. Sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and heat for 1 minute.
- Add the marinara, ricotta, Parmesan, and cream cheese. Reduce heat to low and allow it to heat through.
- Add the drained spaghetti, use kitchen tongs to gently toss until well-combined. Note: It will be very saucy but the pasta is going to continue to absorb it as it bakes.
- Add half of the spaghetti to a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish and top with half (2 cups), of the mozzarella.
- Top with remaining spaghetti, then with the rest of the mozzarella.
- If serving immediately, bake uncovered for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is hot and melted. Let sit for 5 minutes prior to serving. Serve with a side of Garlic Bread with Cheese.
- See notes for instructions on baking and serving on another date.
Notes
Make Ahead Method
Option 1: Assemble and Refrigerate:
• Cover and refrigerate for up to two days.• Bake refrigerated casserole at 375° for 30 minutes covered, then for 10 minutes uncovered.
Option 2: Assemble and Freeze:
• Cover with 2 layers of foil and freeze for up to 3 months. These disposable aluminum baking pans are great for the freezer.• Let frozen casserole thaw in the fridge overnight and bake at 375° for 30 minutes covered, then for 10 minutes uncovered.
• You can also bake from a frozen state and add an additional 1 hour of baking time, covered.
Pro Tip: If your 9 x 13 casserole dish is filled to the brim, place it on a baking sheet in the oven to catch any overflow. (This isn't likely but just in case.) Alternatively, you can use an 11 x 15 inch baking dish.
Baked Spaghetti with Meatballs
If your family loves the classic spaghetti and meatball combo, you should make my meatball recipe instead of using ground beef. Just mix the cooked meatballs into the sauce, combine it with the spaghetti, top with cheese, and bake!Ricotta Cheese: The recipe calls for 8 oz. (1 cup) of ricotta. You can use up to 16 oz. if you prefer, you may just need a larger (11 x 15 inch) casserole dish. If necessary, you can substitute cottage cheese.
Nutrition
Note: This recipe was originally posted in 2019 and was since republished. If preferred, you can access the previous version here. (Although I recommend you try the updated version!)
great recipe!!! 👍
Thanks Janelle! Glad to hear you enjoyed it😃
This dish was simply amazing. It was just the right size for my family. All of the ingredients came together perfectly. I will definitely be making this again.
That’s great to hear! Definitely a great family dinner. My toddler even eats this one!❤️
Hi I was just wondering if I can triple the recipe? I’ll be trying this recipe tonight and I need enough to serve 35 people do you think tribling the recipe will be enough
Hi Juli! This makes enough for 6 hearty servings. You can triple it if you think that would be enough for the people you’re serving, if you tap the number of servings on the top middle of the recipe card, a slider will appear and you can slide it right to increase the serving amount, and the ingredient quantities will automatically update!
I’ve made this 3 times since I got the recipe a few weeks ago. So good. Definitely a keeper! Thanks you
You’re very welcome Lori! I’m so happy you’re enjoying this one. Definitely a great weekday meal and freezes well! 😃
This baked spaghetti was delish. My family enjoyed it. 😋 I didn’t have ricotta cheese so I used 4 oz of the cream cheese instead. Definitely will make again and I might throw some spinach in it.
Thanks so much for the great review Karen! I’m so happy to hear the family enjoyed it! I love how easy this one is, plus my 4 year old daughter eats it!😃
I made this last night and it was so good. My husband who isn’t the biggest pasta fan was still raving about it today. Thanks for a delicious recipe!
You’re very welcome Nicole! This is definitely a great one for during a busy week. Thanks for the review!!!😀
Made this as the make ahead version for my friend and her husband who just had their first baby a week ago. She just texted me saying “omg so good”! Was so easy to make and made the perfect comfort food for new parents. 💗
That’s so great Savannah, and what a nice thing to do for your friend!😍
Mmmmmm….so good. We’re going to weigh a ton around here because I keep making your pasta dishes and we love them! We had this on Monday, then the chicken tettrazini last night….I’d better focus on low carb for awhile!
🤣🤣🤣 Why do carbs have to be so delicious, It’s not fair! So happy to hear you’re enjoying them. Thanks for the review!
I made this but i layered it like lasagna. But i make my own sauce. But this good
Interesting take Kelly, I admire the creativity!😀
I plan on making this for dinner tonight….just one question: it mentions adding mushrooms in the directions, but I don’t see them listed in the ingredients. Not a big deal – my husband doesn’t like mushrooms anyway, though the rest of us do, so not adding them isn’t a major issue, but when I want to add them to a recipe I put them in the food processor before adding them and he gobbles up whatever they’ve been added to in blissful ignorance! So…..just wanting to know what amount to use. Thanks!
Hey Vicki!! OOPS, my bad! I’ve used 8 oz. of mushrooms in the past, but just like you, my husband doesn’t like mushrooms so I’ve since revamped this recipe a bit to adjust it more to his liking, (which includes the addition of Ricotta cheese, YUM!!). I updated the recipe to notate that 8 oz. of mushrooms is optional but I removed it from the instructions. Thank you for catching that!! Enjoy your dinner tonight! 🙂 -Stephanie