You might be asking yourself, “Why on earth would I bake spaghetti??” Well, let me tell you. This Baked Spaghetti recipe gives you all the comfort of a casserole but with the familiar flavors of your favorite pasta dinner. The noodles soak up the sauce, the cheese gets perfectly melty and golden on top, and the whole thing holds together in a way that makes it great for slicing and serving. I love that it’s budget-friendly, too, and it makes wonderful leftovers. It’s worth the extra 30 minutes. Promise.
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“I’ve been making this baked spaghetti for years and it’s a home run! Easy to make vegetarian as well. Budget Bytes is a recipe site I can trust without having to “trial run”. Recipes turn out great every time!”
Lisa
Easy Recipe for Baked Spaghetti
This super simple baked spaghetti casserole has three main components: spaghetti (of course), meat sauce, and cheese. What more do you really need? I think of it as a shortcut lasagna with all the comfort but way less effort. I usually make the meat sauce from scratch, but if I’m in a rush, a good jar of store-bought marinara works just fine. Once the pasta’s mixed with the sauce, I spread half into the dish, add a layer of cottage cheese and Parmesan, top it with the rest of the pasta, and finish with mozzarella. Then it’s in the oven until everything’s golden and bubbling. It’s my definition of good, honest comfort food.
Recipe Tips & Suggestions
- Swap the Italian sausage. As mentioned in the recipe card, you can swap the ground Italian sausage for another type of ground meat (or ground meat alternative). You’ll just have to double the herbs and spices added to the meat sauce to compensate for the seasoning in the Italian sausage.
- If you want to make this recipe veggie, leave out the Italian sausage (double the seasonings added) or swap in a jar of your favorite store-bought marinara sauce. My homemade marinara sauce recipe would also be delicious in this baked spaghetti.
- Want to make it ahead? Make the meat sauce, mix it with the spaghetti, and assemble the casserole. Instead of baking, let it cool and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days. Let it come to room temperature as your oven preheats, then bake covered with foil as directed. You may need to add a few extra minutes to the baking time to ensure it heats all the way through.
- Pop the finished casserole under the broiler for a few minutes for an extra crispy, golden cheese top. I really like doing this when I have the time because any baked spaghetti poking out also gets a bit crispy (which I love!)
- What else can I add? Add sautéed mushrooms, chopped spinach, olives, or maybe even some sautéed zucchini to add extra vegetables to the sauce. Homemade meatballs in place of the sausage would also work (don’t forget to double up on the seasonings in the sauce). Or, to make it extra cheesy, try adding in some crumbled feta or maybe extra mozzarella to the cheese layer. I wanted to keep mine budget-friendly, so I went kind of light on the cheese and sausage this time around.
Baked Spaghetti Recipe
Cost $8.95 recipe / $1.49 serving
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.70)
- 3 cloves garlic ($0.12)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.22)
- ½ lb. Italian sausage ($1.93*)
- 3 oz. tomato paste ($0.45)
- 28 oz. crushed tomatoes ($1.67)
- ½ tsp Italian seasoning ($0.05)
- ½ tsp salt ($0.02)
- ½ cup water ($0.00)
- 12 oz. spaghetti ($1.00)
- 1 cup cottage cheese (small curd, $1.12)
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan ($0.50)
- ¼ tsp black pepper (freshly cracked, $0.02)
- 1 cup mozzarella (shredded, $1.25)
- 1 Tbsp parsley (chopped, optional garnish, $0.05)
Video
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic.
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium. Add the Italian sausage and cook until browned.
- Add the chopped onion and minced garlic to the skillet and continue to stir and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Add the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and water. Stir to combine, then allow the sauce to come up to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the sauce simmer while you cook the pasta.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add ½ Tbsp salt to a large pot of water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and continue to boil until the pasta is tender, but not fully cooked. Drain the pasta in a colander.
- Add the drained pasta to the sauce and stir to combine.
- Combine the cottage cheese, Parmesan, and pepper in a bowl.
- Lightly grease an 8×11" casserole dish. Layer in half of the spaghetti and sauce, then top with the cottage cheese mixture. Add the second half of the spaghetti and sauce, then top with the shredded mozzarella.
- Cover the dish with foil then bake the spaghetti for 30 minutes. Top the spaghetti with chopped parsley, if desired. Slice into six pieces, then serve!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Large 12" skillet
- Large Pot
- 8×11" Casserole Dish
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Baked Spaghetti Step-By-Step Photos
Gather all of your ingredients.
Make the meat sauce: Start by dicing one yellow onion and mincing three cloves of garlic.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium. Once hot, add ½ lb. Italian sausage and cook until browned.
Add the diced onion and minced garlic to the browned sausage, and continue to cook and stir for a few more minutes or until the onions are softened and translucent.
This is what your skillet should look like once the onions have cooked with the browned sausage and softened after a few minutes.
Now pour in one 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes, 3 oz. tomato paste, ½ tsp Italian seasoning, ½ tsp salt, and ½ cup water to the skillet.
Stir the sauce until everything is well combined, and then let the sauce simmer while you make the pasta.
Preheat your oven to 350ºF and cook the spaghetti. Add ½ Tbsp salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add 12 oz. of spaghetti and continue to boil until it is just barely undercooked (it will cook more as it bakes). Drain the spaghetti in a colander, but don’t rinse it.
Make the cheese mix: While the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheese layer. Add 1 cup small curd cottage cheese, ¼ cup grated Parmesan, and ¼ tsp pepper.
Stir the cheese layer ingredients together until well combined.
Assemble the casserole: Stir the drained spaghetti into the simmered meat sauce.
Lightly grease one 8×11-inch (or 2-liter) casserole dish. Add half of the spaghetti and meat sauce to the bottom of the baking dish, then top with the cottage cheese mixture.
Now layer the second half of the spaghetti and meat sauce over top, then sprinkle with 1 cup of shredded mozzarella. Try to evenly distribute the mozzarella across the entire surface of the spaghetti.
Bake: Cover the casserole dish with foil, then bake in the preheated 350ºF oven for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly around the edges.
Let the pasta cool for about 5 minutes, then slice into six pieces and serve. You can top with chopped parsley garnish for visual effect, but it’s not needed for flavor.
What to Serve with Baked Spaghetti
Homemade garlic bread is awesome with baked spaghetti, but if you want some vegetables on the side, I would go with something like oven roasted frozen broccoli or an easy Caesar salad.
Storage & Reheating
After baking, slice the baked spaghetti into six servings and refrigerate. The spaghetti will stay good in the fridge for about 3-4 days, or, once fully chilled, you can package up individual slices and freeze them for longer storage. This dish is so perfect for meal prepping. It’s such a lifesaver to be able to pull a serving of this out of the back of the freezer on a busy night! Let it thaw before reheating in the microwave or in a foil-covered baking dish in the oven until heated through.
More Baked Pasta Recipes
Our Baked Spaghetti recipe was originally published 9/29/12. It was retested, reworked, and republished to be better than ever 9/8/25.
If your using cottage cheese and baking spaghetti then maybe you should just go to olive garden. They do a great job of destroying Italian culture and if you’re making this you probably are too so just leave it to the pros. This creator should leave Italian themed food alone and destroy another cultures food instead. I am surprised they actually didn’t use a jar sauce but in this case they probably should have. I’m almost positive they won’t allow my comment to be posted which is why the star rating is so high.
Hi Joe! We keep all comments as long as they’re not explicit, and all of the reviews here are genuine. Baked Spaghetti is a very common American-Italian dish and this is in no way meant to be an authentic take on an Italian recipe. Just a hearty and tasty way to feed your family on the cheap. :)
This dish reminds me of a post by Pasta Grammar youtube channel. It was called Pasta al Forno and my understanding it is an authentic way to feed a crowd. Maybe the cottage cheese is a hack to bring down the price, but this tastes delicious.
quick cooking for a family while on a budget means sometimes you make baked spaghetti with cottage cheese because it’s easy and your kids love it. Geez louise.
If *you’re* leaving hateful comments on a stranger’s recipe, I think you really need to question your own life choices? I promise you it doesn’t need to be “authentic” cuisine to be delicious. I don’t even use the sausage because my dad hates noticeable fennel, I sub in ground meat with Italian seasoning, but it still turns out amazing. I actually grew up never liking real spaghetti (yep, not even when I ate some that a family friend’s immigrant nonna made!) but this changes the texture for me and makes it perfect for my taste buds. Delicious recipe, sorry not sorry!
Lol who hurt you? Imagine thinking you have the say on how someone should cook food.
I’ve been using this recipe for years, and a long ago comments is buried below. The sauce recipe is my go to! I still don’t see Feta in the recipe, but have used it sometimes for a salty flavor pop. It doesn’t melt, though, just softens with heat. I sometimes use ricotta instead of cottage cheese–sort of depends what’s in the fridge when I decide to make this.
Can you make this a day ahead?
You sure can!
I’ve been making this baked spaghetti for years and it’s a home run! Easy to make vegetarian as well. Budget Bytes is a recipe site I can trust without having to “trial run”. Recipes turn out great every time!
I absolutely love making this as it appears to be The best of both worlds: spaghetti and lasagna!
Hi! I have been making the original recipe with Feta cheese for years. Can you send me the original one?
Thank you!
Just emailed it to you! :)
This recipe is good. I have made it several times,but the old one was one of my favorites. Is there a way for me to get the original version?
Just emailed it to you! :)
Can I get the original verson as well?
Just emailed it to you! :)
Hi! Can this be frozen?
Definitely!
Delicious!! I used minced beef (couldn’t find italian sausage in the UK) and upped the seasoning as suggested. It’s basically my go-to spag bol with added cheese, so I’m very happy. Recipe was perfect but I added a bit more mozzarella because I couldn’t resist!
I made this for our youth group. It was loved by all! Thank you very much for sharing this great recipe! God bless you.
This is a family favorite. I usually simplify and use jarred sauce and leave out the meat – still seems to be plenty of flavor and protein. My young kids gobble it right up!
Hello
What is small curd cottage cheese I see many US recipes calling for this but not sure
I can buy it in Canada
Thanks
It just has a slightly smaller curd than large curd cottage cheese. It’s possible that cottage cheese in Canada just comes with one size curd, but check the front of the package to see if it specifies.
I have made this so many times now and in different ways. It’s a family hit. If I don’t have any sausage or even ground beef available I have used just a jar of meat sauce or added in meatballs to it. I use just a jar of pasta sauce and it has worked well. My autistic son will happily eat this kind of spaghetti because it’s not as messy and easier for him to eat. 👏
I doubled this recipe and served to dinner guests last week. I followed the recipe as written but doubled the Italian sausage. The results were fantastic and it was enjoyed by everyone. It was a familiar dish, but the baked part made it seem a little fancier. I’ve enjoyed the leftovers too.
I added a layer of spinach in between and replaced sausage with white beans and it was delicious!