In the middle of a world pandemic, the need for comfort foods (and comfort leggings, comfort naps, comfort chocolate…) is strong. Today I was definitely feeling the need for comfort food, so queue the baked spaghetti.
There are a lot of “Million Dollar Spaghetti†recipes, so I combined a couple based on ingredients I had on hand and came up with a winning combination. In lieu of store-bought shredded mozzarella (couldn’t find it anywhere), I actually shredded mozzarella cheesesticks instead! Hey, you do what you gotta do when cooking during covid! I was also able to “hide” whole wheat spaghetti in this dish since it was smothered with so much cheesy goodness. The kids didn’t even notice they were eating “ugh, brown pasta”. 🙂
I hope this recipe brings you comfort like it did for us!
Million Dollar Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 8 oz. spaghetti noodles
- 4 Tbs. butter divided
- 1 lbs. ground beef
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 4 oz. cream cheese softened
- 2 Tbs sour cream
- 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella divided
Instructions
- Cook spaghetti as directed, drain and mix with 2 Tbs. butter and 1/2 jar of sauce.
- Brown ground beef with garlic and onions.
- Add remaining sauce to meat mixture.
- In a bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and half the shredded cheese.
- Place remaining pats of butter at bottom of casserole dish.
- Layer: 1/2 of noodles + cheese mixture + remaining noodles + meat mixture.
- Top with remaining shredded cheese and bake at 350 until heated through and cheese is melted, approximately 30 minutes.
