You might be asking yourself, “Why on earth would I bake spaghetti??” Well, the same reason you’d want to bake ziti or any other pasta casserole. Baking spaghetti in the oven lets the spaghetti soak up flavor from the sauce and when you add in a layer of gooey melted cheese, you get an absolutely delicious and comforting casserole. It’s worth the extra 30 minutes. Promise.
What’s in Baked Spaghetti
This super simple baked spaghetti casserole has three main components: spaghetti (of course), meat sauce, and cheese. What more do you really need?
I made a really easy homemade meat sauce for this casserole, but if you’re short on time you can absolutely substitute a jar of store-bought pasta sauce. And if you want more meat in your meat sauce and have room in your budget, you can double up on the sausage and use a whole pound.
Can You Sub Ground Beef?
If you prefer ground beef in your meat sauce as opposed to Italian sausage, just make sure to double up on the herbs and spices that you add to the sauce. Italian sausage is packed with a lot of spices that bring tons of flavor to the sauce, so you’ll be missing that if you substitute it with plain ground beef.
What Else Can I Add?
There is so much room for customization with this recipe. You could add sautéed mushrooms, chopped spinach, olives, or maybe even some sautéed zucchini to add extra vegetables.
If you want to make it extra cheesy, try adding in some crumbled feta or maybe extra mozzarella to the cheese layer. I wanted to keep mine budget-friendly, so I went kind of light on the cheese and sausage this time around.
How to Store Baked Spaghetti
After baking, slice the baked spaghetti into six servings and refrigerate. The spaghetti will stay good in the fridge for about 4-5 days, or, once fully chilled, you can package up individual slices and freeze them for longer storage. This dish is so perfect for meal prepping. It’s such a lifesaver to be able to pull a serving of this out of the back of the freezer on a busy night!
What to Serve with Baked Spaghetti
Homemade Garlic Bread is awesome with baked spaghetti, but if you want some vegetables on the side I would go with something like Oven Roasted Frozen Broccoli or a simple side salad.
Baked Spaghetti with Sausage
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.42)
- 3 cloves garlic ($0.24)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1/2 lb. Italian Sausage ($3.00)
- 3 oz. tomato paste ($0.45)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($0.85)
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 cup water ($0.00)
- 12 oz. spaghetti ($1.00)
- 1 cup small curd cottage cheese ($0.93)
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan ($0.50)
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella ($1.25)
- 1 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional garnish) ($0.05)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic.
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium. Add the Italian sausage and cook until browned.
- Add the chopped onion and minced garlic to the skillet and continue to stir and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Add the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and water. Stir to combine, then allow the sauce to come up to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the sauce simmer while you cook the pasta.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add ½ Tbsp salt to a large pot of water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and continue to boil until the pasta is tender, but not fully cooked. Drain the pasta in a colander.
- Add the drained pasta to the sauce and stir to combine.
- Combine the cottage cheese, Parmesan, and pepper in a bowl.
- Lightly grease an 8×11" casserole dish. Layer in half of the spaghetti and sauce, then top with the cottage cheese mixture. Add the second half of the spaghetti and sauce, then top with the shredded mozzarella.
- Cover the dish with foil then bake the spaghetti for 30 minutes. Top the spaghetti with chopped parsley, if desired. Slice into six pieces, then serve!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!
How to Make Baked Spaghetti – Step By Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion and mince four cloves of garlic.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium. Once hot, add ½ lb. Italian sausage and cook until browned.
Add the diced onion and minced garlic, and continue to cook and stir for a few more minutes, or until the onions are soft and translucent.
Add one 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes, 3oz. tomato paste, ½ tsp Italian seasoning, ½ tsp salt, and ½ cup water to the skillet.
Stir the sauce until everything is well combined and then let the sauce simmer while you make the pasta. Also, begin to preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Add 1/2 Tbsp salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add 12 ounces of spaghetti and continue to boil until it is just barely undercooked (it will cook more as it bakes). Drain the spaghetti in a colander.
While the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheese layer. Stir together 1 cup small curd cottage cheese, ¼ cup grated Parmesan, and ¼ tsp pepper.
Stir the drained spaghetti into the simmered meat sauce.
Lightly grease one 8×11-inch (or 2 liter) casserole dish. Layer in half of the spaghetti and meat sauce, then top with the cheese mixture.
Add the second half of the spaghetti and meat sauce, then top with 1 cup of shredded mozzarella.
Cover the casserole dish with foil then bake in the preheated 350ºF oven for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly around the edges.
Let the pasta cool for about 5 minutes, then slice into six pieces and serve. You can top with chopped parsley garnish for visual effect, but it’s not needed for flavor.
Hi Beth. For the original recipe including feta, is everything the same except replace the cottage cheese with the same amount of feta? If not, can you include a link to the original recipe? Thanks.
HI Susan, we can send you the old recipe. Is the email you registered with still a good email for you? xoxo Monti
Hey, Beth. Is there a way to access the original recipe – the one w/ feta and w/o cottage cheese? Thanks!
Hi Laura- is your email address still the same as the one you registered with? If so, I can email you a copy. XOXO -Monti
Yes, please email a copy. Thanks!
Done! XOXO -Monti
Love this layered cheesy casserole! Baked spagetti has been a treat at our house for years as a way to use up leftover spagetti and meat sauce–mixing up the leftovers (or planned overs), plopping in a greased pan or casserole dish and covering with grated cheese and baking until the cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. I think layering the pasta with cottage cheese or ricotta is brilliant!
I didn’t see Feta in the recipe, but it was mentioned in the comments. I enjoyed wonderful pasta and pizza dishes in Greece that included it, so adding here would definitely create a hint of Greece in the dish–as would using just oregano instead of mixed Italian herbs. Folks looking for a sub can always use Mexican queso fresco which has a very short life time. Putting it into anything else is a way to salvage a delicious crumbly and salty cheese that can go off in only a few days after opening.
This is so good! I was a little hesitant about the feta but it adds such a great flavor. I served it with a side salad and breadsticks, yum!
What can replace Feta cheese with?
I guess it depends on why you need to replace it. Are you dairy-free? Just don’t like feta? Is there something particular about feta’s flavor that you don’t like (so I know whether to suggest something similar in flavor or different in flavor)?
This was a totally yummy recipe!
I found this in the recipe index to use up some feta. I only had two hot sausage links, so I added a half lb of ground beef with some extra Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. SO GOOD. My only suggestion is to use a bigger dish, this barely fit in my 8×11.
This was great I like the fact that it broken down far as how much is going to cost parag redient how many servings also specified pictures this was great and I would also use it again thanks so much!
Would like to make to take camping. How long in micro to reheat and at what power?
one of my favorite dishes growing up was baked spaghetti… My mom did it with pork chops on top of the spaghetti.. I can’t wait to try your version (but with GF pasta – cause I have to )
Thank you for sharing this – every time I talk about baked spaghetti people look at me like I’m nuts!
LOVE LOVE this recipe! I used 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes, and wondered if I was supposed to drain them? Thanks, keep the great recipes coming (btw, my 3 20-something kids are also making your easy, delicious recipes)!
I did not drain mine, but I think I used crushed, which is much closer to a sauce (you wouldn’t be able to drain the juice out from the pulp).
This sounds easy to make I’m going to try it out it will be something different
First, thanks for your site/recipes. I hate to cook, but you inspire me. Love your cookbook too – so much I just bought a another copy to gift.
My substitutions for my sensitive stomach:
-My Italian sausage was lean chicken
-Fresh basil – chopped a few rounds, no clue how much total
-No sugar
-Red wine vinegar – a *tiny* amount to deglaze the pan
-Pumpkin (unsweetened, plain) in place of tomato paste and most of the canned ‘matos, to avoid all the extra citric acid, no clue exactly how much. It’s a great sub for tomato for iffy stomachs!
-4 fresh Roma ‘matoes, diced
-A dash of tamarind sauce to make the pumpkin tart like ‘matos
-A tiny dash of smoked paprika,mostly to darken the ‘mato
-One small can of zucchini and ‘matoes in Italian seasoning
-After a good round of sniffing, a little more garlic powder, onion powder, a dash of Kosher salt, a dash of pepper
-Glace de Poulet Gold (a mega-reduced chicken stock) – maybe a tbs in the sauce, possibly less?
-Whole wheat spaghetti, barley moistened/tossed with olive oil before baking
-Ghee to prep the garlic and onions and grease the pan
-Chihuahua cheese in place of the mozzarella
-I let my sauce simmer for about an hour, give or take
But ya’know, aside from that, I followed the recipe lol.
Hahaha, I LOVE reading variations on the recipes, so thank you for sharing! :D
This was our first recipe to try, and kids adored this dish (spaghetti with sauce was actually devoured… must be the flavors and the cheese, not to mention Sausage!)
So definitely a keeper, we’ll be making this again and possibly freezing it in portion sizes.
He just said, “the ultimate compliment you can pay to the chef is “thirds””. Yay! Made this recipe vegetarian style, using your wonderful suggested addition of 1 Tablespoon of Italian Seasoning, along with adding 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper at the end (to the cheese) and also adding a container of fresh sliced mushrooms and stirring in 1/2 a bag of fresh spinach to the sautee pan (without overcooking either). Truly scrumptious on a wintry Midwest evening. Thank you!