Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole
Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole is a quick and delicious pasta dish that's perfect for busy weeknights. It's made with simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand, and it can be made ahead of time and baked when you're ready.
Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole is a quick and delicious pasta dish that's perfect for busy weeknights. It's made with simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand, and it can be made ahead of time and baked when you're ready.
- Carbohydrate 40.1075088881671 g
- Cholesterol 74.5868748957225 mg
- Fat 19.2101915216396 g
- Fiber 2.71556690590423 g
- Protein 21.8599557003244 g
- Saturated Fat 9.33421607497534 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Recipe (186g)
- Sodium 441.461518379911 mg
- Sugar 37.3919419822628 g
- Trans Fat 2.52662940808644 g
- Calories 426 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
- In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through; drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce. Set aside.
- Cook spaghetti according to directions on packet. Drain and place cooked spaghetti in bowl. Add cream cheese, Italian Seasoning and minced garlic. Stir until cream cheese is melted and the spaghetti is thoroughly coated.
- Lightly grease a 9x13" pan. Spread a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the dish. Put spaghetti on top of sauce and top with remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly.
Standard baked pasta dishes rely on a liquid ricotta or bechamel binder poured directly over layered ingredients, which often yields a watery center or dense pockets of dry noodles. This version uses a direct-emulsion method where fat meets heat immediately. Tossing the hot 12-ounce batch of cooked spaghetti with 8 ounces of softened cream cheese, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning directly in a warm bowl melts the dairy instantly. The residual heat from the starch creates a cohesive, clinging sauce that coats every strand before the noodles ever touch the baking dish.
Maintaining uniform thermal transfer is critical when combining a heavy meat sauce with a rich dairy layer. Browning the lean ground beef thoroughly and draining excess fat prevents the 28-ounce jar of prepared spaghetti sauce from pooling at the bottom of the 9x13-inch pan during the 30-minute bake at 350 F. Grated parmesan cheese added across the top browns properly only when moisture levels remain controlled beneath it, yielding a bubbling surface without a soggy crust.
Scaling quantities requires attention to pan geometry rather than simple arithmetic. Doubling this recipe means dividing the mixture into two separate dishes to ensure the center reaches serving temperature without over-baking the edges.
