Crock Pot Million Dollar Pasta
Crock Pot Million Dollar Pasta has layers of sauce, pasta, beef and a delicious cream sauce all topped with melty, gooey mozzarella cheese!
A SIMPLE, FLAVORFUL CROCK POT MEAL
A yummy, creamy, flavorful sauce with tender pasta all topped with a gooey, melty cheese? Yes, please! For me, pasta is the perfect leftover food. So I don’t mind if I have a lot leftover. This recipe is made all in one pot and it also takes your traditional pasta and sauce meal to something just a bit more special!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
No. For this recipe you are not going to cook the pasta beforehand. They will go in dry.
My personal favorite spaghetti sauce is Rao’s Roasted Garlic. But it can be pretty pricey since you need two jars for this recipe. I’ve used the Walmart brand (as you see below.) I’ve used the Aldi brand as well and they all work fine. You can use any of your favorite marinara/spaghetti sauce that you enjoy.
Cottage cheese is my go-to as a substitute for ricotta cheese. It’s a more budget-friendly choice and you honestly don’t taste any real difference in this recipe.
Of course not. You can leave it out if you don’t want a meaty pasta. You can switch it out for ground Italian sausage, ground turkey, etc.
Pasta makes for fantastic leftovers! Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)
- ground beef
- cream cheese
- sour cream
- ricotta cheese
- garlic
- spaghetti sauce
- water,
- cavatappi, cellentini or macaroni pasta
- mozzarella cheese
HOW TO MAKE CROCK POT MILLION DOLLAR PASTA:
Brown and crumble ground beef (season with salt and pepper.) Drain excess grease and set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, sour cream, ricotta cheese, minced garlic and parsley.
In the bottom of a 6 quart (or larger) oval slow cooker, add half a jar of spaghetti sauce. Evenly layer half the box of the cavatappi pasta on top of sauce. Pour remaining jar of spaghetti sauce over noodles. Pour on half a jar of water.
Then layer half the cooked ground beef mixture over top.
Dollop the entire cream cheese mixture evenly as possible over the beef layer. Do not stir.
Evenly layer the rest of the cavatappi pasta on top of the cream cheese layer.
Top with remaining jar spaghetti sauce. Pour another half jar of water on top of spaghetti sauce. Finally, layer the rest of the cooked ground beef on top. Cover and cook on low for about 2 hours (or until noodles are tender). After cooking, gently stir mixture. Then layer with 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover for an additional few minutes (until cheese is melted.)
Then dig in!
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Originally published: October 2016
Updated photos & republished: June 2019
Crock Pot Million Dollar Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 8 ounce block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 2 (24 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce, divided use
- 24 ounce jar water
- 16 ounce box cavatappi pasta
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Brown and crumble ground beef (season with salt and pepper.) Drain excess grease and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, sour cream, ricotta cheese, minced garlic and parsley.
- In the bottom of a 6 quart (or larger) oval slow cooker, add half a jar of spaghetti sauce.
- Evenly layer half the box of the cavatappi pasta on top of sauce.
- Pour remaining jar of spaghetti sauce over noodles.
- Pour on half a jar of water.
- Then layer half the cooked ground beef mixture over top.
- Dollop the entire cream cheese mixture evenly as possible over the beef layer. Do not stir.
- Evenly layer the rest of the cavatappi pasta on top of the cream cheese layer.
- Top evenly with remaining jar of spaghetti sauce
- Pour another half jar of water on top of spaghetti sauce.
- Finally, layer the rest of the cooked ground beef on top.
- Cover and cook on low for about 2-3 hours. Note: Many slow cookers cook differently and some run very hot & some not so hot so check at two hours and go from there. It took just about 3 hours in mine.
- Stir mixture and make sure pasta is fully cooked. If not, cover and allow to cook for another hour. Then evenly layer the top with 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Cover for a few additional minutes (until cheese is melted.) Sprinkle with a little dried parsley for color (optional).
Video
Notes
- Use as much or as little cheese as you like. If two cups on top is too much for you, just cut back on the amount used.
- Ground Italian sausage can be for the ground beef.
- Use any corkscrew style pasta or similar size pasta that you enjoy or can find.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
This was so delicious! I made this for my roommates and I and they were super impressed. Some mods I made, I times and halved the recipe so the 4 of us had heartly servings and lots of leftovers. Also, i used gluten free spaghetti as the pasta. It tasted great!
Love hearing that Samantha – yay!! Also, very good to know about the gluten free pasta since folks may wonder about that, thank you for mentioning it!
Can you clarify steps 5 and 10? There isn’t any sauce left after step 5. I just want to doublecheck the liquid measurements given that.
Not sure why some people had issues. I followed the directions exactly and watched the video. It turned out perfect for me and tasted great! I will definitely make again
Recipe was pretty good! My boyfriend is a picky eater so he wasn’t a fan but I thought it was really good! Tastes exactly like lasagna to me!
I took this for fellowship meal. I brought none home. It was great! I used meatballs in the middle instead of ground beef. The only thing I would do different is reduce the cook time. Thank you
found this recipe and had to try it. after reading the comments i was a little worried about it being soupy so i cut the water in half. i added a chopped onion and some oregano. i will cut the cook time to 2 hrs on high and cook the onions with the burger next time. it was fabulous but you better have 6 hungry people because it makes a lot. i will make a half amount next time. if you can read and measure the instructions are idiot proof, nuff said.
I’m not sure what I did. I followed the direction exactly. It was the most terrible thing I ever made in my life. Was the pasta supposed to be cooked first? I put it in uncooked. The flavor was good, but holy Lord was it terrible!! It was like paste.
This has been pinned on my board for a while… I made it today, and it was AMAZING!!! I didn’t have any soft noodle issues like some said. Even though I am from Wisconsin, and cheese is life, I added half the cheese because it seemed cheesy enough. Otherwise, the only change I made was, I added Italian seasoning to the cheese mixture instead of parsley.
I have been making this exact recipe, and following instructions to the T every time .. and its amazingly delicious and get alot of compliments and request for it for holidays..
Thanks so much Terri!
I have made this several times. everyone always loves it and it turns out great! I have made it once with rotini and also with cavatappi.
This turned out great for me! Great instructions and loved all your step by step photos. Thank you!
I followed the recipe to a T, using mild Italian sausage. I used a large oval crockpot. Took four hours total. It was perfect and my VERY picky in-laws devoured it!
I made this exactly as described except with the sausage substitute for beef and a bit more ricotta since I was short on cream cheese. It turned out great – I wouldn’t change anything. Not sure what all the grievances about water were about other than maybe just crock pot variance, I used the recommended water and finished product wasn’t soupy or runny at all. Thanks for the recipe!
Made this tonight it was so worth it by fast the best pasta I have ever made and had 100% reccomend making this even fussy eaters will love it!
This was the most horrendous recipe I’ve ever tried. Save yourself the trouble and don’t try it
This was so good! My kids and wife all loved it. I was worried it wouldnt be good because of some of the comments. Let it cook for an hour on low, then an hour on high, and then stired it before another 45 minutes. It wasnt watery at all. It was thick.
I almost wonder if it is the types of crock pots being used. I have played with the recipe after getting some of the comments and I just can’t figure out the issues myself. Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and comment!
Flavor was good but it was runny as all get out. I even used less water than than the recipe called for. I have a regular crock pot. Not a cheap-o one either. Almost like the noodles didn’t absorb the liquid much. I don’t get it.
horrible instructions….in #3 im instructed to use half the jar of spaghetti sauce and in #5 it says to layer the remaining jar of spaghetti sauce….then in #10 it says to use the remaining spaghetti sauce again….what?!?!….then
Please read again. It says says “remaining jar” not remaining sauce. There’s two jars of sauce in this recipe. Reading not a strong suit for an “educated instruction follower” lol
Probably the worst recipe I have found on this site. Dont recommend the pasta disintegrated and I got soup.
This wasn’t very good. Followed the recipe at directed. Way too creamy!
Noodles are waaayy overcooked. Do not add pasta at the beginning
I read over the recipe a couple of times before I saved it. It sounded like something the family would eat so I was excited to try it. We followed the recipe exactly as posted and ended up with lasagna flavored soup and the pasta was mushy. The flavor was good, I’ll give it that but I agree with one of the other comments that said it was a waste of ingredients. I now have a crockpot full of soup in the fridge that we won’t eat.
I cut this recipe down and made 4 servings worth instead of 6 servings, and only used 2 cups of water so maybe that helped it not be so watery like others are saying? I also used plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and added onions and red bell peppers, also seasoned everything in the pot with more black pepper at the end too. But it came out really good! I’d definitely make this again!
I love a good casserole and this sounded like a lasagna crock pot style so I was excited. I followed directions, added more sauce and everything. The consistency was there when it was all done but lacked a ton of flavor. I seasoned the cheese mix a lot with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and onion powder but was not enough. It was still incredibly bland.
My tips would be to season the beef, season the cheese mixture and season while it’s all together. I’m not blaming the chef or whoever as crock pot recipes need seasoning throughout. I like spiciness and it wasn’t there for this.
This is the worst thing I’ve ever cooked. It was a waste of my time and money.
Very good
I have a child with ARFID who has spaghetti as one of his safe foods. I made this tonight and he said it was even better than spaghetti. My other son said I need to make this for our next church potluck. 10/10
This makes me so happy to read Shannon!! Thanks so much for coming back to comment – it really means so much!
I should have listened to the comments. everything would be great if I cut back drastically on the water or even left it out completely. ruined waste of groceries
I’m confused bc I followed the recipe exactly (other than adding extra shredded mozzarella) and mine was not watery.
if you follow this recipe as written you will end up with watery, flavorless, overcooked pasta. I have no bad feelings or intentions just stating facts
If you follow this recipe to the T you will be left with a watery mess of overcooked pasta and a flavorless pile of cheese. Maybe take the recipe and tweak it to common sense
This is fantastic in taste and on a budget. I’m not sure what people are talking about when they say it’s x or y, but I bet it’s because they’re using low-quality ingredients. I bet low-quality noodles would get mushy in a crockpot. It is a bit watery, but that’s an easy fix. I just put in 3 cups of water instead of the 6 that it asks for, and it comes out really well. I will say it should have onions, but this recipe is really fantastic regardless.
I’m wondering if it is the type of crock pot. I only use the cheaper crock pot with the ceramic insert. I think it heats more evenly. Some of the new ones these days have metal inserts and I wonder if that is heating things up unevenly or it gets way too hot so things get overcooked.
It says 1/2 jar of water 12oz. And again 1/2 jar of water 12 oz = 24oz total. That is 3 cups (3x8oz =24oz), not 6 cups so you used the proper amount in the recipe. And you say that it’s still watery?
This was too watery for me..but the flavor isn’t bad at all!