Million Dollar Spaghetti is a spaghetti casserole with layers of noodles, cheese, a homemade meat sauce, and a cheesy center.
Million Dollar Spaghetti is like the happy marriage of my favorite Spaghetti pie, to a classic lasagna. The noodles are layered with a cheesy filling in the middle, then a yummy meat sauce and cheese on top. YUM!
We love million dollar spaghetti because it’s family friendly, freezer friendly, and budget friendly (contrary to what the name might lead you to believe) But, true to it’s name, it DOES taste like a million bucks 🙂 . Your family will LOVE you for this one!
How to Make Million Dollar Spaghetti:
1. Prep the noodles: Boiling a package of spaghetti noodles, drain the water and toss them in a bowl with some butter and a little marinara sauce. Pour half the noodles in a 9×13” pan.
2. Spread cheesy mixture over noodles. Mix together cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese and spread it over top of the noodles.
3. Layer remaining noodles, creating a little surprise cheese filling between the noodles.
4. Layer marinara meat sauce. The simple meat sauce is made with ground beef, ground sausage, onions, garlic, and marinara.
5. Top with cheese and bake. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan cheese over top and bake at 350 degrees F until cheese is melted and bubbly. I love it when the cheese on the edges get golden –YUM!.
Make Ahead And Freezing Instructions:
To make ahead: You can prepare million dollar spaghetti 1 day ahead of time. Follow recipe instructions up to step 8 (just before baking). allow it to cool, cover it well with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator until ready to bake.
To freeze: Prepare recipe right up until the baking step. Cover well with greased aluminum foil and freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, thaw in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days, then bake for about 20 minutes covered and then 15-20 minutes uncovered. If baking from frozen, bake covered for about 40 minutes, then uncover and bake 20-30 minutes longer, or until bubbly and warm.
Possible Recipe variations:
- Vegetarian million dollar spaghetti: leave out the meat entirely or substitute plant based meat!
- Ground beef vs. sausage: I like to use both ground beef and ground Italian sausage in this recipe but you don’t have to use both. If you do, consider saving the leftover ½ pound of Italian sausage to make Baked Ziti or Pizza Casserole.
- Sub ricotta: if you prefer ricotta cheese to cottage cheese, feel free to substitute at a 1:1 ratio!
- Switch up the pasta: we use spaghetti for million dollar spaghetti but feel free to use your favorite kind of pasta.
Consider serving this with:
- Fresh Fruit Salad
- Classic Wedge Salad
- Fresh Green Salad
- A big tray of raw veggies with Easy Vegetable Dip
- Homemade Olive Garden Breadsticks
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Recipe
Million Dollar Spaghetti
Video
Ingredients
- 16 ounces spaghetti noodles
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/2 pound ground Italian sausage
- salt and pepper , to taste
- 1 small onion , chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 24 ounce jar marinara pasta sauce
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 8 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- fresh parsley leaves for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large skillet cook and crumble the ground beef and Italian sausage and season with salt and pepper. Remove most of the grease.
- Add onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes until onion is translucent.
- Add all but ½ cup of the marinara sauce (reserve ½ cup for the noodles) to the mixture and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Cook Spaghetti according to package instructions, just until “al dente”.
- Place hot spaghetti in a large mixing bowl with butter and ½ cup marinara sauce and toss to combine. Pour HALF of the pasta into a 9x13’’ pan.
- Combine cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in a bowl and mix well. Smooth over noodles in the pan.
- Top with remaining noodles. Add meat mixture on top and smooth into an even layer. Top with mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Check it around 20 minutes and if the cheese is browning too quickly, place a piece of tinfoil over it.
- Wait about 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. Enjoy!
- I love to serve this with Homemade Olive Garden Breadsticks!
Notes
- Vegetarian million dollar spaghetti: leave out the meat entirely or substitute plant based meat!
- Ground beef vs. sausage: I like to use both ground beef and ground Italian sausage in this recipe but you don't have to use both. If you do, consider saving the leftover ½ pound of Italian sausage to make Baked Ziti or Pizza Casserole.
- Sub ricotta: if you prefer ricotta cheese to cottage cheese, feel free to substitute at a 1:1 ratio!
- Switch up the pasta: we use spaghetti for million dollar spaghetti but feel free to use your favorite kind of pasta.
Nutrition
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One of our family favorites! I use bow tie noodles but otherwise follow the recipe as listed. So delicious and enough to freeze leftovers. Freezes well also and is just as good the second time. We love it!
I made this tonight for dinner. Hubs said. This is definitely a keeper! Put this in the rotation!! No greater compliment could come out of his mouth!! Thanks for the recipe!!😃😃✌🏻😃😃
This was great! I used ground turkey instead of beef and ricotta instead of cottage cheese. We absolutely loved this! This is definitely a keeper. Thank you!
One of my all time favorites! There’s a lot of cleanup to do after, but it is well worth it!
Wish I could leave a pick of what I made and let you smell it. Oh…..my…….goodness! DELICIOUS 😋
Can you provide clarification on the amount of spaghetti sauce? The ingredients say a 24 ounce bottle but the instructions only say to use 1 cup. (1/2 cup on meat and 1/2 cup on noodles.) I used the whole jar. Delicious!
Very heavy and bland.
I felt like it needed more sauce. 24 oz was not enough in my opinion.
Absolutely wonderful! We do change up the cottage cheese for ricotta and also like to mix mozzarella and pepper jack. I love it, it’s fairly easy to make, especially if you can get it done in advance. Thanks for sharing!!