This hearty baked spaghetti casserole is loaded with flavor. Million Dollar Spaghetti is a cheesy, meaty weeknight dinner recipe! Layers of pasta, cheese, meat sauce, and more cheese!
If you love a good Italian meal, be sure to also try our shortcut Ravioli Lasagna recipe. And end the meal with our favorite Olive Garden Breadsticks!
Why this Recipe is Best
This million dollar spaghetti casserole gets it’s name from the richness and depth of flavor, not for how much it costs to make! If anything it can win you award, it’s beloved by everyone I’ve ever made it for!
Growing up in the midwest, casseroles are a part of our way of life.
From hashbrown casserole to green bean casserole, and all the JELL-O dump salads in between, this spaghetti casserole recipe is by far one of my favorites.
The hearty meat sauce combined with the rich and creamy filling is like a spaghetti version of Baked Ziti.
- Large 13×9 baking dish– perfect for a crowd
- Can be frozen– make ahead!
- Hearty meat sauce– from scratch
- Prepare ahead of time– budget and family friendly.
You’ll love this easy weeknight dinner!
Ingredient Notes
Meat sauce. For extra flavor, I use a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage, along with garlic, onion, and my favorite marinara sauce.
If you prefer meatless, load up your sauce with green peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, and/or eggplant! Simmer the vegetables of your choice with your marinara sauce to cook them down and soften the texture.
Pasta. Classic spaghetti noodles is what I choose, but you can opt for the thin spaghetti (like in this Chicken Tetrazzini recipe), or any other style you love…rotini, bowtie, etc.
Cheese. The center layer of cheese is what makes this casserole magical. You’ll need cottage cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese! This is similar to how I make my lasagna.
Add sour cream and butter and you’ve got one heck of a spaghetti casserole!
Easy Instructions
I love that this dinner can be made ahead of time. Whether you prep the ingredients in the morning, early afternoon, or even the night before.
- Cook Noodles. Whichever noodle option you choose, cook them up and add some of the sauce to the noodles. Set aside.
- Meat Sauce. Brown the meat and add pasta sauce. Set aside.
- Make Cheese mixture. Combine the cottage cheese with cream cheese, sour cream, and half of the mozzarella. Set aside.
- Assemble the casserole.
- Butter Cubes.
- Pasta with Sauce.
- ALL the Cheese filling.
- Other Half of Pasta Sauce
- Meat Sauce
- Mozzarella Cheese.
Bake uncovered.
Tips and Tricks
- Assemble casserole up to 24 hours in advance if desired. Keep covered in refrigerator and add an extra 15 minutes to baked time if chilled.
- Freeze casserole by covering with foil and freezing for up to 30 days. Thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours before baking. I don’t recommend baking from frozen as it will dry out.
- This is a huge dish of food. If you don’t have a deep 13×9, use two square pans instead. Perfect if you want to freeze a batch for later!
- Want to share with a neighbor? Bake it in a disposable foil pan so you don’t have to worry about getting a dish back.
- Swap out the cottage cheese for ricotta for a more classic flavor!
- Serve with an Olive Garden Salad and Cheesy Garlic Bread.
- Don’t forget dessert! Finish off your meal with some ricotta cookies or easy cannoli.
More Easy weeknight dinners
- Italian Chicken Casserole
- Overnight Egg Casserole– breakfast for dinner!
- Meatball Parmesan Casserole
- Crockpot Enchiladas
- Huli Huli Chicken
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Million Dollar Spaghetti Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti noodles
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic pressed
- 2 jars marinara sauce, any variety 24 ounce each
- 1 package cream cheese 8 ounce
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 3 cups mozzarella cheese divided
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ½ cup butter sliced
- parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Cook the noodles according to package directions.
- Add 1 jar of the sauce to the cooked noodles. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, brown ground beef and Italian sausage with onion and garlic. Drain grease and add the second jar of marinara sauce to the cooked meat. Set aside.
- In a bowl, combine cottage cheese with cream cheese, sour cream, and half of mozzarella cheese. Set aside.
- Add butter cubes to the bottom of a 13×9 deep dish casserole.
- Spread half of the spaghetti (with sauce) in the bottom of the dish.
- Top with ALL of the cheese mixture.
- Follow up with the remaining half of the pasta (with sauce).
- Add all the meat sauce to the top of the million dollar casserole.
- Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese on top, with the grated parmesan.
- Bake casserole UNCOVERED in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.
Notes
- If you prefer meatless, load up your sauce with green peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, and/or eggplant! Simmer the vegetables of your choice with your marinara sauce to cook them down and soften the texture.
- Assemble baked spaghetti up to 24 hours in advance if desired. Keep covered in refrigerator and add an extra 15 minutes to baked time if chilled.
- Freeze casserole by covering with foil and freezing for up to 30 days. Thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours before baking. I don’t recommend baking from frozen as it will dry out.
- Swap out the cottage cheese for ricotta for a more classic flavor!
Nutrition
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Hearty Million Dollar Baked Spaghetti is the perfect casserole for weeknight dinner. You’ll love the cheesy filling!
I froze half of mine recipe. What are the reheating directions?
I’ve made this several times and I love it. I live alone since my husband passed and I don’t always feel like cooking for one. So I make this in my deep casserole pan and once cooled I cut into 12 servings. Then I put each serving in a freezer container
And when I don’t feel like cooking I microwave about 5 mins and it’s just as good as when it comes out of the oven. This is my investment cooking. I love doing this cuz I have meals for 12 days.
Thanks so much for this delicious recipe.
I’ve made this recipe for Million Dollar spaghetti twice. My granddaughters can be picky eaters and they all love it! I do add about twice as much Parmesean as the recipe lists because we love the flavor. I would suggest, like others have mentioned, use a very deep casserole dish. The one I use is a 13 x 9 Oval that is 4” deep and it fills the casserole, I believe it might be 7 quarts. I use a 45 ounce jar of Prego (divided in half) rather than using two regular size
jars of sauce. It’s a great recipe for a crowd or to have leftovers.
Easy & inexpensive to make. Would do a 9 x 13 pan as it fills it. So tasty!!!
Made this and it was so good! Even my non-spaghetti loving kids loved it. I added about 3/4 cup of pasta water to the sauced pasta and it kept it from being too dry. Definitely making again And will use another commenters suggestion to put the cheeses in the food processor to blend.
Rich! Made it exactly as recipe stated. Even used a deep 9×13 (thank God!) It was SO MUCH cheese mixture, I think if I make it again I’ll do half the meat, and half the cheese mixture, just wayyyyyy too rich!
Dan Z
I wish I read these comments first, this was overflowing in my 9×13 pan. Overall a tasty meal though.