This easy baked spaghetti recipe combines spaghetti, a flavorful sauce with ground beef, Parmesan cheese, and is topped with melty mozzarella for the perfect comforting casserole. The spaghetti is held together with eggs and cheese, making it easy to slice and serve. It is an amazing family dinner that can be assembled ahead of time or frozen for later.
As a lover of cooking and food, I treasure having my kids in the kitchen with me. I love teaching them simple cooking skills that I know they will carry with them as they grow. And they learn how to feel confident in the kitchen as I pass down this tradition of sharing love through food.
My Baked Spaghetti recipe is a great recipe to make with kids. It has moving parts and timing, so it is perfect for teaching those skills, while being a relatively uncomplicated recipe.
We had friends over this weekend and I was looking for a simple meal to fix. This baked spaghetti was just the ticket. Simple to make and everyone loved it.
Key Ingredients for Baked Spaghetti
- Spaghetti: Follow the instructions for boiling on the box, but cook it for 2 minutes less than the box suggests as the spaghetti will continue cooking in the oven
- Ground beef: I use 80/20 ground beef because the fat in it is used to sauté the onion and garlic. Once it has browned, drain off any excess grease. This can be replaced with Italian ground pork or ground turkey. If you use ground turkey note that you will need to add olive oil.
- Marinara sauce: This is the key ingredient to keeping the casserole from drying out. Either pick a brand that you love, or make my homemade marinara recipe. Please note that you will need to increase the recipe as it makes 28 ounces as written.
- Eggs and Parmesan cheese: These two ingredients are tossed with the spaghetti and work together to hold the casserole together and make it sliceable.
- Mozzarella: As always, I recommend shredding your cheese from the block for the best melting.
How to Make Baked Spaghetti
- Cook the spaghetti and ground beef. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook your spaghetti noodles. You can find all of my tips for cooking pasta here: How to Cook Pasta. While they are cooking, cook your ground beef with onion and garlic. Break it up as it cooks until you no longer see any pink.
- Make the sauce. Drain the grease from the ground beef and stir in the marinara sauce and seasonings and allow to simmer.
- Make the spaghetti filling. Drain and rinse the cooked noodles and stir in Parmesan cheese and eggs.
- Put it all together. Layer the ingredients by starting with a little meat sauce, then adding the spaghetti mixture. Add the rest of the sauce and then top with shredded mozzarella.
- Bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.
Why Add Eggs to Baked Spaghetti?
- Eggs help bind the noodles and cheese together so the baked casserole holds its shape when served.
- The eggs are optional, but without them you will have more of a saucy spaghetti bake and less of a cut-and-slice casserole.
- Rinsing the spaghetti before combining it with the eggs cools it a little and keeps the eggs from cooking in the heat of the noodles before the casserole is put together.
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three to four days. To reheat, cover and microwave the portion you plan to eat at half power until warmed through. You can also cover and bake just the portion you want to eat. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.
Making Easy Baked Spaghetti Ahead
This is a great recipe to make on a Sunday afternoon, and then wrap and put in the refrigerator until you get home from work Monday evening. Put the dish together as the recipe calls for up to the point of putting it in the oven. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and put in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. When ready to bake, put it in the preheated oven (straight from the refrigerator) uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes or until the casserole reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you would like to make ahead and freeze, it can be stored, tightly wrapped for up to three months in your freezer. Thaw in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours before baking.
Pro Tip: Make a Double Batch!
Double all of the ingredients and make it in two casserole dishes. Make one to eat right away, and freeze the second dish. It’s double the dinners without double the work.
Tips and Tricks
- Grate your own cheese. The melty cheese is one of the highlights of this recipe. A block of cheese that you grate yourself will melt a lot better than pre-shredded cheese.
- Make it vegetarian. Swap the meat that you brown at the beginning for vegetables. Good options are carrots, celery, zucchini, and bell peppers. Sauté them in two tablespoons of olive oil before moving on to Step 4.
- Swap the ground beef for ground turkey. Brown the ground turkey in two tablespoons of olive oil.
- Make your own marinara sauce: I love to make my Easy Homemade Marinara Sauce for this recipe. It is also delicious with meatballs.
- Leave out the eggs: If you are cooking for someone who can’t have eggs, you can leave them out of this recipe.
What to Serve with Baked Spaghetti
I love the delicious flavors in this recipe for baked spaghetti. To round it out for dinner, I like adding a vegetable side dish. Here are a few that would go perfectly with this casserole.
If you make this baked spaghetti recipe or any of my other recipes, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
Recipe Video
Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti (see note 1)
- 1 pound ground beef (I used 80/20)
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 32 ounces marinara sauce homemade or store-bought
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (see note 2)
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 eggs beaten, see note 3
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9 by 13 inch baking dish and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a roaring boil and cook the spaghetti according to package directions, boiling for 2 minutes less than is indicated on the package, drain the noodles, and rinse in room-temperature water. (Continue to Step 3 while the water is coming to a boil.)1 pound spaghetti
- In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef, onion, and garlic. Break up the beef and cook until just after the beef is no longer pink and the onions are soft. Drain any excess grease and return the skillet to the heat.1 pound ground beef, 1 small yellow onion, 2 cloves garlic
- Stir in the marinara sauce, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Bring to a simmer.32 ounces marinara sauce, 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- In a large bowl, toss the cooked spaghetti with the beaten eggs and Parmesan cheese.2 eggs, 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- Pour just enough of the meat sauce into the bottom of the pan to coat it. Then add the spaghetti. Pour the remaining meat sauce over the spaghetti and top with mozzarella.
- Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.2 cups mozzarella cheese
Notes
- Because this recipe will be baked, you want to make sure that you don’t overcook your pasta. To be on the safe side, cook it 2 minutes shorter than the length of time suggested on the box.
- You can replace the Italian seasoning with 1 teaspoon of basil and 1 teaspoon of oregano.
- You can leave out the eggs in this recipe if you want or need to.
Sherrie Mix says
Wow love baked spaghetti
my husband he can’t have it so is there away I can cut it done for 1
I would make the full batch of meat sauce, and then make a small portion of noodles. With a little egg and a little cheese. Make it in a small baking dish and just freeze the left over meat sauce. It won’t be exactly the same and I can’t tell you the amounts without trying it first, it’s something you’d have to play with a little. Let me know if you try it.
Mary says
You can always make the whole batch then portion out into individual servings and freeze them.
Patricia Hunt says
Are you saying make this ahead of time by wrapping in foil and putting it in the oven up to 24 hrs before cooking it?
Oye. Thanks for catching that type-o!
Tanya Shortes says
You did say refrigerator, by the way.
I fixed it after the initial comment :)
Lynda says
We had friends over this weekend and I was looking for a simple meal to fix. This baked spaghetti was just the ticket. Simple to make and everyone loved it. We had a little leftover so the next day I went to get some for lunch and noticed some of it was missing. Hummmm Again the following day I was going to take the last piece to work for lunch….Gone. Apparently my family loved it too as someone kept sneaking the leftovers. Its now on the rotating menu for my family. Thanks for making meals that are simple and good.
This made me laugh so much Lynda! I’m so glad it was a hit. And your family totally sounds like me. I’m notorious for standing in front of the fridge and taking nibbles! My mom was always yelling at me, “Lisa! Just get a bowl!!”
Taylor says
Can you make this with angel hair pasta noodles?
Yes! That should work fine.
Terry says
I’ll age myself here, that’s okay…lol….Remember when Pizza Hut had Baked Spaghetti? Served in what they called “boats”? OMGEE!! Delicious!! I always make my own sauce, have for over 30 years! I never measure, it’s all by looks and of course, taste. Taught to me by my beloved cousin ❤ I’ll follow your recipe, using “our” sauce. If only I could find the “boats”!!! Hahaa…oh the oooey gooey cheese has me drooling….
Gayle says
The spaghetti bake recipe sounded very good and easy. I can not wait to try it.
Terrie says
How long do you cook it if you bring it from the refrigerator to the oven.
I see instructions on the freezer but not refrigerator.
It looks so good!
Thanks
If you are baking it from the refrigerator you should only need to add 10 minutes to the covered baking time. I hope you enjoy it!
Kelly says
Do you use grated parmesan cheese or regular parmesan cheese??
Either will work here – and you will see in the picture I used the cheaper pre-grated cheese. Generally speaking, I like shredding my own, but both will work in a pinch.
carol ellis says
I made this and froze then a month later baked in oven but was a bit dry.Help
Did you freeze it before or after baking? I’m not sure why it would be dry. My best guess is that it might have needed to be wrapped a bit tighter.
Annette says
Is there a substitute for the eggs since I am allergic to them?
I’ve only tested this recipe with eggs. It will still work without the eggs, it just will be harder to cut into those nice square pieces because the egg acts as a binder.