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Million Dollar Spaghetti is a spaghetti casserole with layers of noodles, cheese, and homemade meat sauce. It's budget friendly, easy to make, and a meal the whole family will love.
Looking for more pasta recipes? Try my Shrimp Alfredo, Sun-dried Tomato Pasta, or American Goulash!
Why I love this meal:
- Family Friendly – The perfect marriage between my favorite Spaghetti Pie and a classic Lasagna. The entire family enjoys this easy casserole.
- Budget Friendly – Feeds a big group with inexpensive ingredients. What else could you want?
- Delicious – It truly tastes like a million bucks! The homemade meat sauce takes the flavor to the next level.
How to Make Million Dollar Spaghetti:
Make the Sauce: 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 marinara sauce (reserve for later), to the mixture and stir to combine. Set aside.
Prep the Noodles: Boil a package of spaghetti noodles, drain the water, and toss them in a bowl with some butter and a little marinara sauce.
Make Cheese Layer: Mix together cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese in a bowl.
Assemble Casserole: Pour half the noodles into a 9×13” pan. Smooth cheese layer on top. Add remaining noodles. Then, layer the meat sauce.
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 this spaghetti casserole 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. Or, prep the sauce, noodles and cheese layer 1-3 days ahead of time and assemble right before baking.
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 20-25 minutes uncovered. If baking from frozen, bake covered for about 40 minutes, then uncover and bake at least 30-40 minutes longer, or until bubbly and warm.
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 pork sausage in this recipe but you don't have to use both. If you do, consider saving the leftover ½ pound of sausage to make Baked Ziti or Pizza Casserole.
- Ricotta: if you prefer ricotta cheese to cottage cheese, feel free to substitute at a 1:1 ratio.
- Pasta: we use spaghetti for million dollar spaghetti but feel free to use your favorite kind of pasta.
Serve With:
- Fresh Fruit Salad
- Classic Wedge Salad or Green garden salad
- Brussels Sprouts Salad
- A big tray of raw veggies with Easy Vegetable Dip
- Homemade Olive Garden Breadsticks
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Recipe
Million Dollar Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 16 ounces spaghetti noodles
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/2 pound ground Italian sausage or pork sausage
- salt and pepper , to taste
- 1 small onion , chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 24 ounces marinara sauce
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 8 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Make Meat Sauce: 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 later) to the mixture and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Prepare noodles: Cook Spaghetti according to package instructions, just until “al dente”. Drain, and place hot spaghetti in a large mixing bowl with butter and ½ cup reserved marinara sauce and toss to combine.
- Make Cheese layer: Combine cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in a bowl and mix well.
- Assemble: Pour HALF of the pasta into a 9×13’’ pan. Smooth cheese layer on top. Top with remaining noodles. Add meat sauce on top and smooth into an even layer. Top with mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Check it around 20 minutes and if the cheese is browning too quickly, tent a piece of tinfoil over it. Wait at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving, to allow it to set up. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe February 2017. Updated February 2022.
All I can say is wow!!!!!!
This is THE BEST MILLION DOLLAR SPAGHETTI in the world!!!!! The only thing I did was add a little more sauce and I threw in a shredded zucchini!!!!! Absolutely to die for!!!!!!
Holy Moly!!! This is beyond amazing! So incredibly creamy. And pretty easy to make!!!
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!
How many jars of marinara? It just says 24 jars I’m assuming that means 2 24 oz? Thanks
one 24oz jar!
Love this recipe!!! I mix everything together and put mozzarella cheese inside and on top. I am making a small batch for me since my husband can not eat cheese
Really, really good!!! Will definitely make again and again. A great casserole to make for company.
This is such a great meal! We are currently a family of three, I believe that this could feed a party! It is absolutely delicious!
Could you substitute ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese? Would you still use the cream cheese and sour cream? Picky 14 year old haha!
I would substitute ricotta for the cream cheese and cottage cheese, and mix it with a little bit of sour cream! Enjoy!
Run cottage cheese through the blender your family will never know the difference. I did this for years once I used ricotta and recwived complaints because it was grainy.
This one is going on my list for church potlucks for sure!
Yes very good did a few things a lititle different , shedded up some left over pot roast and different pasta but came out great
Thanks for the recipe.
The spaghetti was wonderful and I even got my picky 4 year old to eat an entire serving! Will definitely make again, thank you so much!
I see instruction for freezing the spaghetti. Is there any special instructions for “make ahead” the day before?
Yes, you can make the whole thing the day before.