How to Cook Delicious Baked Spaghetti

Baked spaghetti combines all ingrediants for one-dish cooking.

Baked spaghetti gives all the flavor of traditional spaghetti in the convenience of a casserole. Add as many of your favorite cheeses as you like to personalize the dish. You can also add meatballs to make the baked spaghetti more hearty and filling. Add a side salad, some Italian rolls or bread and you have a satisfying meal that takes only a short amount of time to make. This dish is perfect for a quick summer meal or when schedules are busy.

Things You'll Need

• 8 oz. spaghetti, angel hair pasta or linguine pasta, uncooked
• 1 large onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 14 oz. canned tomatoes
• 10 oz. low-sodium tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cup water, divided
• 2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, Italian cheese blend or other favorite cheeses

Instructions

1. Chop the onion and garlic.

2. Place ground beef, onion and garlic in a skillet and cook over medium heat until the meat is browned.

3. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, one cup of the water and the Italian seasoning to the skillet and simmer for five minutes.

4. Break the pasta into parts while the meat mixture is cooking and place in a oven-proof casserole dish. Each pasta strand should be in three sections.

5. Pour the rest of the water over the pasta in the casserole dish.

6. Add the meat mixture to the pasta in the casserole dish along with the cheese and salt and stir, making sure that all the pasta is covered by the meat sauce.

7. Cover with casserole lid or aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Uncover the dish for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Tips & Warnings

• For a little extra flavor, sprinkle another 1/2 cup of cheese to the top of the dish after uncovering it for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

• Add extra water to the casserole dish before cooking there isn't enough liquid so that the pasta cooks evenly.

References

• cdkitchen: Baked American Spaghetti
• Cooks: Baked Spaghetti and Cheese Caserole