Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti
A baked spaghetti casserole that’s amazingly cheesy and creamy. It’s comfort food at its best, and EASIEST!
I know. It’s the day after Labor Day, we’re just about to start football season, and I post this instead of some sort of post-Labor-Day-juice-cleanse-quinoa-health-kick type recipe.
Sorry guys, but you’ll need your stretchy pants for this.
It’s pure comfort food at its best – so no. It is not diet-friendly. It is not skinny. It is not light. It’s just the best kind of spaghetti.
It’s a spaghetti casserole with layers of pasta noodles, cream cheese and sour cream, and a meaty-marinara sauce, baked to cheesy perfection.
It’s enough to feed a crowd or feed a party of two all week long. You win either way.
Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 small onion, diced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- ½ cup whipped cream cheese
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef and onion and cook until beef has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Drain excess fat.
- Stir in crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley and red pepper flakes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cream cheese and sour cream.
- Add pasta to the prepared baking dish and layer with cream cheese and beef mixture; sprinkle with cheeses.
- Place into oven and bake until bubbly and heated through, about 15-20 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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If you do not like a lot of herbs, do not use them, especially oregano. I would use garlic, Instead
This looks very appetizing. Thank you!!!
Can you make this ahead of time?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
AMAZING
Chungah, while I hate to knock one of your recipes, we found this one subpar to another one I have that places half of the spaghetti in the pan, then layers cheese, sauce and noodles again- topping with sauce and shredded mozzarella.We felt like this left the noodles plain and didn’t meld the flavor into the noodles much. Sorry, .
Keep working those recipes though, we like a lot of the others you churn out.
The sauce was great!
I halved this recipe, and still ended up with 9 servings. I used an 8×8 and baked it a little longer than the recommended time. It was sooo good. I recently went through a surgery that made it so I couldn’t eat, and this was the first recipe I made when I could eat normally again. Very easy to make, and very flavorful. I added a little extra crushed red pepper, just because we like it spicy. I was told “this is a keeper recipe” after dinner. Thanks so much for this! Very, very good. Will make again.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
Hi Chungah,
I’m planning to scale this for 2 people, using about ¼ pound spaghetti, and using homemade meat sauce. Does about 2 cups of meat sauce sound right?
Hi SandyToes! Unfortunately, without having tried scaling down this recipe to 2 people myself, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
When do you use the whipping cream in the cream cheese spaghetti?
There is no whipped cream in the ingredient list, but whipped cream cheese – it gets used starting in step 5. Hope that helps!
I love this recipe!!!! I have three boys and honest to goodness they have three plates each when I make this dish. I mix the sour cream and cream cheese mixture in with the noodles and then start the meat and cheese layering. It gives the noodles a little more spazazz to me! It also blends really nicely in the warm noodles.
That’s great! I bet it’s so delicious!
This is a regular at our house. But the last time I made it my daughter said, “Mom, I think it needs more cream cheese!” So, this week I double the cream cheese mixture and stirred it into
This is a regular at our house. But the last time I made it my daughter said, “Mom, I think it needs more cream cheese!” So, this week I double the cream cheese mixture and stirred it into the pasta before topping with the sauce. Twelve year-old genius! Thanks for super duper dinner
More cheese is always a great idea!
Chungah,
Thanks for this recipe. I made it tonight and it was very good. I thought it would be heavy with the creams but it wasn’t at all. I think it was the amount; only a cup was perfect for a large dish. I also accidentally added a 54 oz can of crushed tomatoes. I cooked the tomato beef mixture down a bit but it was about perfect. The creams add a nice little something extra. Thanks again. This was a great recipe.
Awesome, glad it turned out great for you!
This is a regular at our house. But the last time I made it my daughter said, “Mom, I think it needs more cream cheese!” So, this week I double the cream cheese mixture and stirred it into the pasta before topping with the sauce. Twelve year-old genius! Thanks for super duper dinner!
Do you mix the cream cheese mixture with the Beef mixture or do you later on top the spaghetti first cream cheese mixture then beef mixture? Sorry that may be a stupid question. Thank you
Not a stupid question at all! These are all layered, not mixed. Hope that helps!
The taste of sour cream and cream cheese along with ground beef and tomatoes in a hot dish just doesn’t go together. Made me super queasy.
This was great! I used half the spaghetti since I’m only cooking for two, there’s definitely enough for tomorrow’s dinner still. In the picture it shows everything layered in the dutch oven instead of 9×13. Would it work as well if everything was mixed in the dutch oven, layered with cheese and baked in the dutch oven? Thanks!
Yes, that should work just fine!
Wow….!!!!!! it’s so Delicious Thanku for showing the best product, I always like your all recipe which is very helpful when we try to make the particular product, keep make and share with us.
I made this tonight and it was really good! The only issue I had was one pound of spaghetti seemed like too much once I cooked it and placed it in the baking dish. I ended up using less. Just wondering if anyone else had the same issue. Thanks for the recipe. I have made a few of your dishes and they are always a hit!
I used half the spaghetti with the full amount of sauce and it seemed like a good ratio.
Can I use Tomato Sauce instead of ceushed tomatoes?
Yes, absolutely!
Very decent, your article to peruse this is thought. This is best your food making. I like it. I have make food. thanks