Baked Spaghetti

This week I made baked spaghetti, which is one of a handful of dishes I made when I first got out on my own and entered the world of cooking. I can't believe I haven't put it on the blog recipe list until now! I actually got this recipe from my good friend Angi Spangler, and when I did some of my first entertaining ever, this is what I made.

I love this because you can throw in some garlic cheese bread toward the end of its baking time - and then you have a full meal ready! And if you're extra inclined, you can rip open a bag of salad, whip up a batch of croutons and just be really impressive. :)

This is a great main dish to make when you have a few guests over, but it also warms over (and freezes) well, so it's a good thing to make when you have a busy week (like I've had this week) and you just need to have something on hand to warm quickly.

You can also customize it a little to suit your tastes. (For example, my sister adds pepperoni to it when she makes it, and it's also very good that way!) It's been a warm week in Indiana this week, but with cooler fall weather coming, this is great comfort food! Enjoy!

The Recipe

8 ounces spaghetti cooked and drained
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 egg lightly beaten
1 package shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown ground beef and drain. Add most of the jar of spaghetti sauce to the beef and simmer while spaghetti cooks in boiling water. Toss cooked spaghetti with Parmesan, egg, and the rest of the spaghetti sauce. Place spaghetti mixture in the bottom of a greased 8x8 inch pan. Spread meat sauce over it and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes (until cheese is melted).

I buy plain spaghetti sauce, but if you like the kind with mushrooms or veggies or garlic, you can use that. I also (gasp) had run out of Parmesan and didn't realize until it was time to bake, so I did not include it this time. It's fine without it. You can also substitute angel hair pasta if you like, because it cooks faster.


Brown the beef....

Add most of the spaghetti sauce. I usually add about 3/4 of the jar.

I start the water boiling when I start the beef browning - so the spaghetti can cook while the meat browns and the sauce simmers. They call it multi-tasking.

Drain the pasta...and I also break my spaghetti into thirds before it boils so it's less messy to eat. (I can't handle stringy noodles...I end up wearing sauce on my shirt!)

I just beat the egg with a whisk in a bowl before I add it to the pasta.

I put the spaghetti back in the pot it boiled in, add the rest of the sauce and the egg...the sauce helps keep the pasta from being super gummy when you reheat it.

Stir it up well so you don't have a scrambled egg going on in there. :)

I spray the bottom of the pan with nonstick spray before I add the spaghetti mixture.

Then I add the meat sauce....

And my favorite part...the cheese.

And there you have it!!

Very yummy!!!!!!!! Side note...this summer when Faith and I went to Tennessee, we did our own cooking, and this was one of the recipes I made. I took a gallon ziploc, measured out the spaghetti and put it in the bag. Then I used a permanent marker to write the recipe on the baggie. When we got to our destination, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up the eggs, cheese, meat and garlic bread, and I assembled it as soon as we got to the condo. We were eating a home-cooked meal in under an hour of arrival.