Million Dollar Spaghetti Casserole
Think classic baked spaghetti... made SO indulgently creamy.
I used to see “million dollar” in a recipe name and wonder what the heck it meant, but here’s all you need to know — when you see that in the title, you can count on it being a much more indulgent and decadent version of the dish in question. Here, that dish is a Spaghetti Casserole and this million dollar version ups the ante with an oh-so creamy layer of five different kinds of creamy-cheesiness. We’re talking cream cheese, sour cream, ricotta, mozzarella, and more — this bake has it all.
Don’t let me fool you into thinking that this is just about the decadent creaminess — it’s not. At it’s heart, it’s a true spaghetti bake, with long strands of pasta intertwined in beefy tomato sauce. It’s just that it also layers in a thick pocket of creaminess and and cheesiness, with a nice cheesy topping too.
It’s more indulgent than your basic spaghetti, is what I’m saying. It’s also awfully easy to make — you just boil your pasta while you brown some ground beef with onion and then stir some marinara first into the cooked pasta and then the rest into the ground beef. We’re going to be layering, so this way you get both a meat sauce and noodles with some nice tomato-kissed flavor.
You then mix up some cream cheese, ricotta, sour cream, mozzarella, and parm which will get sandwiched in between layers of spaghetti. There’s also some pats of butter involved and a final layer of ooey-gooey mozzarella — I told you this bake has it all.
This is definitely a crowd-pleaser of a casserole. Everyone loves spaghetti and everyone needs some cheesy-creamy-comfort now and again and this bake combines them both. It’s homey but indulgent, easy but crowd-pleasing — it’s a winner of a dinner.
Million Dollar Spaghetti Casserole
Ingredients
- 12 oz spaghetti
- 5 cups marinara sauce
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, thinly sliced and divided
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, divided
- 2 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated and divided
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F and set aside a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti one minute less than package directions indicate. Drain and return pasta to pot. Stir in one cup of the marinara sauce. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, brown ground beef over medium-high heat. Once barely pink, add onion and garlic and continue cooking until beef is cooked through and onions are soft. Season with 1 teaspoon of the Italian seasoning, then stir in remaining marinara sauce. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese, along with the cream cheese, sour cream, ricotta, parmesan cheese, and remaining Italian seasoning. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Arrange half of the butter slices in bottom of 9x13-inch baking dish. Arrange half of the spaghetti over the butter, followed by the cheese mixture. Spread remaining spaghetti over the top, then top with remaining butter slices. Pour remaining meat sauce over the top.
- Top with remaining mozzarella, then bake until cheese has melted and sauce is bubbly, about 40 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from The Recipe Critic.