by HollyBaked Spaghetti is a favorite casserole around here! A quick zesty meat sauce is combined with tomatoes and spaghetti and topped with cheese. This spaghetti casserole is baked in the oven until hot and bubbly.
Just like stuffed shells, this easy recipe is perfect served with crusty bread, homemade Garlic Butter and a Caesar Salad.
Easy Baked Spaghetti
This easy baked spaghetti casserole is a family favorite that is loaded with flavor! We love Italian flavors from Easy Meatballs to a simple bruschetta and this cheesy casserole is no exception!
While Million Dollar Spaghetti Casserole contains a lot of cheese in the spaghetti mixture (like cream cheese, cottage cheese or ricotta), this recipe is simple has pasta and sauce with a little bit of cheese on top.
How to Make Baked Spaghetti
Baked Spaghetti Casserole is easy to make, simply prepare the meat sauce, toss with spaghetti and bake until bubbly. The prep can be done then night before and then baked before serving making this baked spaghetti the perfect potluck dish!
- Brown beef and onions. Add veggies and tomato sauce and simmer.
- Stir in spaghetti and place in a dish.
- Top with cheese and bake!
The cheese on top gets golden and crusty making for amazing flavor! Make sure your spaghetti is cooked al dente as the noodles do cook a bit more in the oven and you don’t want them to get mushy.
One great thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever you like to the sauce. If you don’t like green pepper, skip it and add diced mushrooms or zucchini. You can easily adjust this to your liking and add more or less sauce if you’d prefer.
How Long to Bake Spaghetti
Since the pasta and the sauce are warm when I put this dish together, it usually takes about 25 minutes or so to bake in the oven. If you prep it ahead of time and refrigerate, it’ll take a bit longer. Remove it from the fridge about 30 minutes before baking and bake about 35 minutes or until hot in the centre.
Do You Cover Baked Spaghetti
I never cover baked spaghetti because the crusty cheese on top is my favorite part! Covering this dish also makes it steam which can overcook the spaghetti.
Serve this with a side salad and garlic toast for an easy meal. This easy casserole is great leftover and freezes perfectly!
More Pasta Dishes You’ll Love
- Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese
- Easy Shrimp Scampi
- Easy Marinara Sauce
- Baked Lemon Butter Salmon Pasta
- Caesar Chicken Pasta
- Baked Gnocchi Casserole in Creamy Tomato Sauce
Baked Spaghetti
Prep Time 25 minutes
Servings 8 servings
Course Casserole, Dinner, Pasta
Cuisine American, ItalianIngredients
- 16 oz spaghetti cooked
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley
- 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1/3 cup fresh parmesan cheese shredded
Sauce
- 1 lb ground beef or italian sausage
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 green pepper diced
- 32 oz pasta sauce
- 14.5 oz diced tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Brown meat, onion, garlic, seasoning and green pepper over medium heat making sure to break up the meat very well. (Drain any fat if needed).
- Add pasta sauce, Italian seasoning and tomatoes to meat. Simmer 5-10 minutes uncovered. Stir in spaghetti and parsley.
- Spread into a 9x13 pan, top with cheeses and bake 25-30 minutes or until hot and cheese is browned and bubbly. Cut into squares to serve.
Nutrition Information
REPIN this Easy Casserole Recipe
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Instead of regular diced tomatoes I added a can of mild Rotel, the family loved it!!
Looking forward to making this! Has anyone tried doing a combo of italian sausage and meat?
A combination of Italian sausage and ground beef is always a good choice, AJ! :)
We loved the casserole tonight! I would love to split a recipe and freeze to keep on hand for a busy day or to give a friend. How should you freeze this (baked or uncooked)?
Thank you,
Betsy
Hi Betsy, I would freeze uncooked then when you’re ready to eat it, just thaw completely and bake in the oven for the same time/temp. So glad your family loves this dish!
So good? My partner ate all 8 servings the same night so I didn’t get to have any! Boy, did it smell great, though!
I had a baby 3 weeks ago and our neighbor brought this over for dinner. Oh. My. Goodness. It was the BEST baked spaghetti I’ve ever had & I have tried lots of different recipes myself, & that others have made. My 2 & 5 year old tore it up as well. I had to ask her for the recipe so I could pin it myself.
Congratulation on your new little one Charis. That makes us so happy to hear! Glad the whole family enjoyed this one.
Hi so for “Fresh parmesan cheese ” do you mean grated like you would find in a plastic container aka Kraft or do you mean freshly shredded?
We used a block of fresh parmesan and shredded it, but either one would work just fine!
When my husband asked “what’s for dinner? I answered” Baked Spaghetti”, he responded with “I don’t think I’ll like that.”. He was.right he didn’t like it …..he loved it. He had 2 generous helping and complimented me on how yummy it was. If you think you may not like it, try it , you won’t be disappointed.
Hello,
I don’t usually leave reviews but looking for something to use up a pound of mild Italian sausage (ground), I tried this out. I did not have several ingredients (green peppers, fresh parsley, mozzarella or Parmesan cheese). It still came out great, topped with just a little bit of a Mexican shredded cheese blend. I did also top it with an easy homemade Bechamel sauce. If you’ve ever had the vegetarian lasagna on Carnival Cruise lines, it’s their recipe (I halved it). Fantastic! Thank You For Sharing.
Bechamel Recipe
Ingredients: 1/2 c. butter, 1/2 c. AP flour, 4 c. milk, 1 whole peeled onion, 4 garlic cloves, 1 bay leaf, salt/pepper/ground nutmeg to taste
Procedure: In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat; stir in flour. Cook 4 to 5 minutes; do not allow it to color. Remove from heat. In medium saucepan heat milk, onion, garlic and bay leaf over medium heat. When milk comes to a boil remove onion, garlic and bay leaf. Slowly add hot milk to butter-flour mixture, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until smooth and thickened. Stirring with a wire whisk or wooden spoon. Season to taste with salt, white pepper and nutmeg.
Yield: 4 cups
Glad you enjoyed it Carrie, thanks for sharing!
Do u drain the tomatoes?
The tomatoes are not drained.
I love your recipes!!
Hi Holly,
Let me preface this by saying I rarely leave reviews on recipes because let’s be honest, a lot of them do not turn out like one would hope. This, however, turned out amazing!! I was looking for an inexpensive way to feed a bunch of 17 year old boys (my son has his DnD group over every Friday), work through my pantry staples (I must have 20 cans of tomato sauce to make who knows what) and not end up with a sink full of dishes (ugh, I hate dishes) when I came across your baked spaghetti recipe. I followed your directions using canned tomato sauce, pork sausage, whole grain spaghetti and a little more cheese and garlic, we love our garlic!! Served with garlic, parmesan Texas toast. Every single one of those boys cleaned their plates (even the one that swore he hates onions)! In fact, my dinner guest raved about it as well! I will be making this again, using up the other 17 cans of tomato sauce?!! Huge hit, thank you very much! Looking forward to trying more of your recipes! BTW, this fit perfectly in a foil lasagne pan lightly oiled with olive oil, so hardly any cleanup as well!
So happy to hear this recipe was such a hit Tryn! Definitely a good one to keep in the cooking repertoire when feeding that many hungry teenagers!!
I find most baked spaghetti recipes to be too dry for my own taste so I only added half the spaghetti . I also only added one clove of garlic because I’m not a huge garlic lover. These changes made it absolutely delicious to us and will be our go to baked spaghetti recipe from now on!
I made this last evening, it was soooo good! My husband loved it! I threw in some diced white mushrooms with all the other ingredients. The left-overs were frozen and I cannot wait to make something, else. I am new to the site and I am up early looking for tonight’s main meal! Thank you!
So glad you loved it Rita! Happy Cooking!
Fantastic!! Thank you for such easy delicious recipes. Just one question, is that parsley that you’ve garnished the baked spaghetti with?
Yes, it is Beverly! :)
This is an awesome recipe. But I didn’t put the can of cut up tomatoes in it just excellent Silver Palate marinara sauce plus 1 tablespoon of sugar made it awesome. I use ground venison also so so good. Also Italian Mozzarella to die for.
Pretty good recipe- easy and filling to boot. My five year old loved it and 83 year old grandmA haha. Thanks
I took it to a potluck everyone loved it. All I added was a bit of maple syrup to the tomatoes it bring out the flavor delish
Yum, that sounds delicious Evelyn!
We loved this spaghetti casserole! It uses simple ingredients, easy to assemble, makes a ton AND most importantly, it is yummy! I used garlic with fire-roasted tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes with garlic. I used a 24 oz jar of sauce, but washed the jar out with a bit of water and added that as well. I would like it even more with the 32 oz sauce too. The only other changes I made…added a dash or two of cayenne pepper, since I like it spicy. (It wasn’t too spicy for others, but had a bit of a “kick”), and since I didn’t have mozzarella on hand, used some other mixed shredded cheeses, plus the parmesan cheese. Served it with some garlic bread. We had lots of leftovers and tomorrow, we will have it with a Caesar salad.
Thank you for this recipe!
Those additions sound so tasty Brenda! Enjoy your leftovers :)
My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe! Used Victoria marinara…all natural/no sugar added. Did add more sauce than stated since pasta will absorb some liquid if it’s cooked ala dente. We really loved it as left overs. Can cut a slice, warm up and dinner’s done! Thanks for the recipe!
That is awesome Susan! So glad you both enjoyed it.
I’m new to your site. Looking forward to making your recipe! Sounds wonderful…
Thank you for joining us Ellen!!
Love your recipes!
Thanks so much Kim! We appreciate it.
Got great recipes
Thanks Bob!
Looks delicious! Can’t wait to make this dish!
Thanks Jim! You will have to let us know what you think.
Looking forward to all the different recipes
Can’t wait for you to try them Bobbie! Enjoy!
Looking forward to cooking the chicken spaghetti
I hope you love it Sharon!
We had company tonight and I need an easy and delicious recipe! This one was a hit with everyone!! Yay!!
I am so glad this recipe was a hit with your guests Samantha!
need Quick and cheap recipes just retired.
Hi Joyce! You can find many easy and economical recipes here!
Super easy to make. Tasted great! Everyone liked it.
So glad you loved it Caryn!
This is so easy to make & EVERYONE LOVES it, whenever I make it!
I love hearing that Linda, so happy it’s a hit for you!
Holly, I would love to give you a hug. Love all your recipes (so far made baked spaghetti and squash casserole). Can’t wait to try them all. If a 65 to man learning how to cook can make wonderful food like this, with your help, my wife will never touch a spatula again. You make cooking fun! Thank you!
Thank you Donald, so glad you’ve loved the recipes! Happy Cooking!
YUM, for sure I’ll be trying this. Can left overs be frozen?
Freezing may make the noodles a bit softer, but it can be frozen and enjoyed Ruth!
Great recipe, can’t wait to make it – THANKS!!!!
I have been on many website’s looking for new recipes, this one, by far has the most consistent, flavourful, easy, never fail recipes to date. Thank you do much for sharing with us foodies your delicious findings. Keep up the good work!!!
Thank you so much Janet! I’m so glad you’ve found some great recipes to enjoy! ❤️
Hear, hear! I second your comment Janet! Thank you Holly, have a wonderful New Year!
❤️Thank you Monica and happy new year to you too!
These casseroles look so delicious, I can’t wait to try some!
I make this all the time. I layer my noodles, meat, sauce, and cheese! Family fav!
Nothing better on a fall night than a big casserole of baked spaghetti. Love how you doctored the sauce. Sounds delish!