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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
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe February 2017. Updated February 2022.
Out of this world! I’m a good cook and love to make new things. Finally made this! I used my own meat sauce(similar to my lasagna sauce). For the cheese layer I used a whole cup of sour cream and two eggs(similar to my lasagna cheese layer).
LOVED IT beyond words!!!
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!!!
This spaghetti was very, very good. I only used 12 ounces of spaghetti and used a very good marinara sauce-RAO’S. My hearty eaters loved it, it was not dry at all, it had amazing Italian taste and it was all gone. I will make this again soon.
Awesome recipe! I double the meat/sausage/sauce mixture and we ladle on top of our individual servings. I use Rao’s Marinara!
This is an absolutely delicious dish. I made my own sauce with lots of garlic & some red pepper. So easy & budget friendly for a family.
The Janine below is NOT me!!! This is why I’ve started using Jayna. This meal is good enough, but not for the amount of work, time and dirty dishes. Wish there was a quicker, easier way.
Was too dry…definitely needs double the sauce and I would put sauce under the pasta to start. I used a Sweet Basil Marinara and more garlic. I would season the cheese mixture next time also.
Do NOT make! Disgustingly dry with NO NO flavor! I’ve made plenty of better past dishes than this! This is revoltingly awful! A jar of pasta sauce isn’t enough! Dry, bland and flavorless! Do NOT MAKE! REVOLTING!
Wow you really hated it. Hope you got some therapy for your rant. let me guess you changed up the recipe and or didn’t fallow as written. Speaking from a person who has made this often and its a crowd pleaser.
Perhaps trying to add garlic & Italian seasoning to the sauce? Also, I mix the spaghetti with Alfredo sauce. You’ll find it much more flavorful & not dry at all. 👍🏼
I made this and it was delicious. However the layers slid all over the plate. After refrigerating the leftovers, the next day it cut perfectly into squares. I think the next time I make this, I will bake, let it cool, then refrigerate overnight. Wondering if anyone else had theirs slide all over the plate after baking.
Made this tonight for a group of 7. Most of us did not like it. The cheese combination was weird and lacking flavor, so was the marinara sauce. Overall just a really bland meal. If I were to make it again I would probably double the marinara sauce, add a ton more garlic, basil, oregano, etc. Also add herbs and garlic to the cheese mixture.
Out of the 7 of us, no one (not even the teen boys) went back for seconds and most threw away at least 1/2 of what was on their plate. We still had about 1/3 left in the pan and just threw it away, not worth saving for leftovers. Disappointing but could be MUCH better with more flavors added.
Followed the recipe exactly and turned out great. Next time I’ll add some garlic salt and Italian seasoning to the cheese mixture.
I followed directions and it was good but spaghetti was dry. If I make this again I will use a lot more marinara sauce probably double, 2 24 ounces instead of 1.