The Best Baked Spaghetti
The Best Baked Spaghetti also known as ‘Spasagna’ is inspired by the meal that used to be served at Cheddar’s restaurants. Alfredo coated spaghetti topped with meat sauce and cheese!
A DELICIOUS SPAGHETTI CASSEROLE
Sometimes the meals I make are inspired by my favorite restaurant foods. If you’ve ever been to a Cheddar’s restaurant then this will be a familiar dish to you. They call it Spasagna* (spaghetti plus lasagna.) If you’ve never heard of it, well, it’s about time you do. Basically, it is cooked spaghetti noodles tossed with alfredo (cheese) sauce, topped with a meaty red sauce, cheese and then baked.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Yes. For most pasta casseroles/bakes, the pasta does need to be cooked before adding to the rest of the ingredients in the dish.
Most of the times it is because there is not enough liquid or sauce coating the pasta as it bakes. In this recipe the spaghetti is coated with Alfredo sauce which keeps the spaghetti from drying out.
Yes. This helps to keep the pasta from drying out as well as it keeps the steam contained within the casserole dish.
This can be made ahead of time and frozen. Then just pull it out of your freezer when ready to cook. Just be sure to add on a few minutes to the cooking time.
Place any leftovers in a lidded container. Place into the refrigerator and eat within 3 days. Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)
- spaghetti noodles
- ground beef
- spaghetti sauce
- jar alfredo sauce (cheese sauce)
- Italian seasoning
- shredded mozzarella
HOW DO YOU MAKE BAKED SPAGHETTI
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Drain noodles very well.
While the spaghetti noodles are cooking, brown and crumble ground beef in a large sauce pan. Drain excess grease.
Put ground beef back in pan and add spaghetti sauce. Stir to combine well.
Meanwhile, once the cooked noodles are drained, put them back into the pot. Stir in alfredo (cheese) sauce and Italian seasoning. Stir well to thoroughly coat noodles.
Place spaghetti noodles into prepared baking dish.
Cover with spaghetti sauce mixture.
Top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes (until cheese is melted and bubbly.)
Allow to cool for about 5-8 minutes. Then slice.
Serve with a salad and garlic bread!
CRAVING MORE RECIPES?
Originally published: June 2011
Updated and republished: March 2021
The Best Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti noodles
- 1 pound ground beef
- 26 ounce jar spaghetti sauce
- 16 ounce jar alfredo sauce
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray 9" x 13" baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Drain noodles very well.
- While the spaghetti noodles are cooking, brown and crumble ground beef in a large sauce pan. Drain excess grease.
- Put ground beef back in pan and add spaghetti sauce. Stir to combine well.
- Meanwhile, once the cooked noodles are drained, put them back into the pot. Stir in alfredo (cheese) sauce and Italian seasoning.
- Stir well to thoroughly coat noodles.
- Place spaghetti noodles into prepared baking dish.
- Cover with spaghetti sauce mixture.
- Top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes (until cheese is melted and bubbly.)
Video
Notes
- Allow to cool for about 5-8 minutes then slice and serve with a salad and garlic bread.
- Baked Spaghetti can be frozen (see my tips above).
- Other pasta can be used: fettuccine, linguine, etc.
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.
*Spasagna is a registered trademark of Cheddar’s Restaurant
Yum! This is similar to the Greek lasagne dish called pastizio, they use long ziti which is like macaronis as long as spaghetti!
Thank you my sister raved about how her family loved this dish and she sent me the link!
This was a hit in my home homr
Hi Jady! Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out with the spaghetti squash!! that is really good to know that you had good results too. I get asked about different types of squash on occasion so it's good to know you liked it with this recipe!!
I made it with Spaghetti Squash…. Ahhh-mazing!
Thank you for letting me know Sarah!! So happy to hear the whole family enjoyed it!!
Made this tonight and everyone in the house liked it- that never happens! Thanks for sharing the recipe. It was really easy and I could clean up along the way, so it was the best kind of recipe!
Momto1tot – you can certainly make it with your own sauces if you like 🙂
can u make this with a home made alfredo sauce? and what about a home made spag meat sauce????
Yum can't wait to try
I'm making this tonight for dinner! I'm wondering, can I top the entire casserole with the spaghetti sauce as opposed to topping each individual piece? I was thinking I could top it with the sauce and then another layer of cheese after the initial 30 minutes and then bake for an additional ten? Any thoughts?!
Hi there! I don't see why you couldn't do that. We just love a lot of red sauce on our individual pieces. Also, when you bake it all together, the red sauce tends to seep down in with the alfredo. If you're okay with that – then go for it! 🙂 You can never have too much cheese either!
This was soo yummy! Thanks for posting:)
I made this tonight and my hubby requested that I not make my "regular" lasagna anymore, only this one! It was a big hit!
Hi Gnat's Mom! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know how it turned out for you!! What a wonderful comment and I am just thrilled to know this meal made your family happy!!
Well of course just because I wanted to try this, I didn't have enough spaghetti, and of course, the only shred cheese I had was cheddar,but I did it anyway. I used shell macaroni. I also made my own spaghetti sauce. It was really good this way. Can hardly wait to try it with all the correct ingredients!!!
Tania
wvlady1960@yahoo.com
This looks fantastic, what a great idea!! Just printed this recipe out, love it!! 🙂
Hi Brandie!
Just wanted to pop over and tell you that we tried this tonight and were amazed! It's absolutely delicious! It's going into our "favorites" box right now!
O M G! I just saw this post…and my mouth is watering! This sounds awesome!
I am coming over from Friday Favorite Finds via Feed My Family. I have printed this out and think that it will be dinner tomorrow night. I may, however, use Italian sausage instead of the ground beef. It look delicious.
I always order the spasagna topped with spicy alfredo at Cheddar's. I LOVE it!
~*Brandi*~
Yum! I really have to make this – my family would love it! And nice to have a little twist on regular old spaghetti. Thanks!
I made this for dinner, and everyone loved it! I was hesitant about the mixing of alfredo and spaghetti sauce, but it was great. This is definitely a keeper. Thanks!
Thank you so much to those of you who have come back to comment on how much you enjoyed it. It really warms my heart to know y'all are making this food and enjoying it. Or else I wouldn't be doing this blog! So it is so nice to hear – thank you!
Loved it!
I made this recipe last week for a Pampered Chef party that I hosted last week. Everyone loved it and I even had a little left for my husband to try. I would make this again!! I found your blog though a post by Pillsbury. I am so happy to have found your blog and the great recipes!