By Lidey Heuck
Updated Oct. 12, 2023
- Total Time
- 1½ hours, plus cooling
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1¼ hours
- Rating
- 4(977)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This comforting baked pasta feeds a crowd and is an easy way to upgrade everyday spaghetti with meat sauce. Once baked, the spaghetti casserole slices into neat squares, and the layer of ricotta and Parmesan filling give it the rich flavor of a lasagna. Feel free to play around with the recipe, swapping in Italian sausage or ground turkey for the ground beef and sautéing leftover vegetables and adding them to the sauce. If you’re planning in advance, you can assemble the casserole (through the end of Step 5) and store in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to bake.
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Ingredients
Yield:8 servings
- Unsalted butter, for greasing the pan
- Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and black pepper
- 1pound spaghetti
- 2tablespoons olive oil
- 1large yellow onion, chopped
- 2tablespoons minced garlic (about 5 cloves)
- 2teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or rosemary, or 1 teaspoon dried
- 1½teaspoons dried oregano, plus more for serving
- ¼teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste
- 1pound ground beef (at least 85-percent lean)
- 1(32- to 35-ounce) jar marinara sauce
- ½cup fresh basil or parsley leaves, chopped, plus more for serving
- 1cup/8 ounces ricotta cheese
- ¾cup grated Parmesan
- 1large egg
- 2cups/8 ounces shredded low-moisture mozzarella
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
681 calories; 34 grams fat; 16 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 13 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 58 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 34 grams protein; 904 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
Step
1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with butter. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to the package directions until 1 minute shy of al dente.
Step
2
While the water comes to a boil, heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, oregano, red-pepper flakes, 1½ teaspoons salt and a few grinds of black pepper, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Step
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Add the beef and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the marinara sauce and basil. Drain the spaghetti, add it to the sauce and toss well.
Step
4
In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, ½ cup of the Parmesan, the egg and ¼ teaspoon salt. Mix with a fork until smooth.
Step
5
Transfer half the pasta and sauce to the prepared baking dish and smooth it into an even layer. Dollop the ricotta mixture onto the pasta in large spoonfuls, then sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella on top. Add the rest of the pasta and sauce to the pan, again smoothing it into an even layer.
Step
6
Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup mozzarella and the remaining ¼ cup Parmesan on top, then bake, uncovered, until the mozzarella has melted, 5 to 10 minutes more.
Step
7
Cool for 5 minutes, then serve with more chopped basil, a pinch of dried oregano and more red-pepper flakes, if desired. Slice the baked spaghetti into large squares and serve hot or warm.
Ratings
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out of 5
977
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Cooking Notes
Zapes
Classic! Whenever I use marinara from a jar, I rinse the jar out with 1/2 cup of red wine, which I add to the sauce. It transforms any off-the-shelf marinara.
Janet
I've been doing something similar for years using penne pasta, not spaghetti. Layer with marinara on the bottom, 1/2 lb. of par-cooked pasta, browned sausage, seasoned ricotta/mozzarella mixture, another layer of penne, marinara, mozzarella, and grated pecorino Romano. It beats wrestling with lasagna noodles and tastes just as good!
Margaret
My mother and my aunts of Sicilian ancestry, living in the coal region of Northeastern PA, would bring this dish to every summer picnic. We called it baked macaroni. All forms of pasta were considered macaroni and the word pasta was never heard in our homes. And we made the meat sauce from scratch. I have to say there is nothing better than this for comfort food.
Janet in CT
Have made variations of this for years and call it pasta bake. Sauté any and every vegetable you like instead of the meat. Don’t need the egg. Also think of it as lazy lasagna.
Christy in NorCal
Loved seeing this! My grandmother (I’m 72!) made this for every family/friend/entertaining event. We called it Italian Delight. Similar recipe, but the addition of corn was the secret ingredient that put it over the top…
Mitzi
As someone born and raised in Rome, I recognize this dish but know a better version of it. Just make your pasta for your pasta night: cook a lot of it. Put the leftovers in the fridge. The day after (or even two), take the pasta out (you can let it come to room temp. for better results), and then mix in your cheese etc. to bake. This dish is made with leftovers and it is meant to save people (like my mom who always make too much pasta) from waisting food.
John M.
This was pretty great! I made it as written and halved the recipe. Fit perfectly in an 8x8 baking dish, and now I have the other half of the ingredients to make it again. Thanks a lot, Ms. Heuck.
Bittenbyknittin
I tried this, and my advice is, Don't, unless you like crunchy, chewy spaghetti.
Joe
You're making a classic baked ziti with penne, and why not? Penne, ziti, it's all delicious.
mimi in sicily
In Sicily this dish is made for various celebrations and is always a big hit. In stead of spaghetti we use twisted pasta or penne Instead of loose ground beef we make tiny meat balls. So good to see this recipe on NYT’s list.
Jennifer
This is wonderful as written. I’ve actually been looking for a baked spaghetti recipe for a few months and am so glad NYT finally published one. The doctoring of a jarred marinara is great. Already looking forward to the leftovers later!
Anneliese
My mom used to make a version of this to stretch our food budget in the ‘70s. She would “hide” chunks of mozzarella (a delicacy then to a family of six) in the baked spaghetti and it was thrilling when you found one in the serving on your plate!
Anne
I adapted this for our vegetarian family by adding cooked chickpeas for heft. It's the best trick I know for morphing a meat casserole into a veg version, and yes, the kids do eat it!
Laura
My mother grew up in the South, and the only spaghetti she knew until she went to college was baked spaghetti. The family recipe has a homemade meat sauce featuring red wine and a little sugar, with herbs, that simmers for a good hour. Once the sauce is ready, add some cheddar cheese to the sauce, then cooked spaghetti ( thin is best), topped with some more cheese. It gets baked covered at 325 for a good 45 minutes, then uncovered for 10-15 minutes. Not vaguely Italian, but worth it.
Enterthewoods
My Sicilian family call this comfort food 'Baked Ziti'. Feeds a crowd and leaves them smiling.
sarah k
This was a big hit here - I made it last night for a birthday celebration for 7 people (including 3 teens!) and we still have plenty leftover this morning. I didn’t have a large enough jar of marinara sauce, so I used a 28 ounce jar of Rao’s and added half a can of plain tomato sauce. Really delicious and I’ll be adding it to my regular rotation.
Malamia
This was the BOMB! Delicious comfort food which I plan to make over and over. Modifications: some smoked mozzarella with the regular mozzarella (always amps up lasagna in the right proportions), some mushrooms that were already in the fridge, and about 5 oz red wine poured in with the browned ground beef. Cannot recommend highly enough 👌
etobian
I make this regularly, using homemade spaghetti sauce (cleaning out the fridge sauce). This is quick, easy and so delicious - comforting, actually. The method is solid, allowing for infinite riffs - jarred or homemade sauce, any ground meat or meat-free…cheeses can be varied (with the exception of the ricotta, of course!) This recipe is a real favourite!
cynlee
Be careful on dried thyme. Cut back or it will be too strong. Otherwise it was good.
J Goodnow
Used the leftover bolognese sauce from making a lasagna; this was a huge hit with all ages (3 year to 79). I added a bit of “gravy” (Michael’s of Brooklyn), to assure that it wasn’t dry after baking. Easy to re-heat in the microwave with no appreciable difference in taste or texture, which is not always true of pasta dishes.
Barbara
My family loved this. I think it would be better with less pasta, maybe 10-12 ounces.
Skyler
Strange maybe, but didn’t think this was that great when I first cooked it and threw the printed out recipe in the recycle. I froze the rest of it and then reheated it tasted much better, see me delving in the recycle le bin to save the recipe after all!
Caroline S
Delicious! Made exactly filling recipe. Highly recommend.
Geneen Granger
I made this two nights ago as is (except a few added mushrooms in sauce) and it was great. I made sure all the pasta/sauce was completely covered in the cheese mixture and it kept the pasta soft. My husband loves spaghetti but next time I'll use rigatoni as an old Sicilian friend did and make the sauce a little juicier. Makes 8 huge or12 large pieces so no cooking for several days!
Carl
This doesn’t work so well as written—you need more sauce than that for a pound of spaghetti that you’re going to bake. I doubled the sauce and used about 2/3 of the total I made. I blitzed the basil with the ricotta the way Giada does in her butternut squash lasagna recipe. And you need more cheese, again, half again as much. I also broke the spaghetti in half so it wouldn’t be quite so messy trying to get it out of the pan. Experienced cooks will fiddle with this to align it to their own tastes
julie breslow
Very good with Penne and sausage
Donna
Made tonight with ground turkey, otherwise followed the recipe. It was a big hit. Next time I will add the red wine as suggested along with an extra 1/2 lb. of meat.
Daveo
This was an excellent dish! Defiantly on the make again list. It is flavorful, dense, and delicious. The interesting part is the bites of ricotta cheese sprinkled throughout. The pasta turned out excellent with only the corners getting crisped up and yummy, the inside filling was moist and had a good bite.
JVass
I used Italian Impossible sausage. Removed them from the casing and cooked it with the veggies I selected. Looks and taste like real Italian sausage.
Duane Rohne
This recipe will now be in heavy rotation, I really liked it. I substituted hot Italian sausage from a local Italian market, casings removed, for the beef. Used perhaps a tad bit more cheese than the recipe advised, but who wouldn't. Lots of fresh basil for the Maranara sauce, again why not. This was a magnificent recipe, kinda like lasagna but not as heavy, felt like less pasta involved.
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