I am so excited to share one of my family’s all-time favorite pasta recipes, this baked spaghetti with cream cheese recipe was an instant sensation in my house. None of my other spaghetti recipes inspire the same amount of enthusiastic arguing over leftovers (when there are any!).
The cream cheese and marinara sauce coat each and every spaghetti noodle to perfection. Then I top it off with a layer of Parmesan cheese AND french fried onions.
Let me tell ya, that topping is ah-mazing, and it’s the secret to this recipe’s success! My mouth is watering just thinking about baked spaghetti with cream cheese!
When you’re ready for another yummy spaghetti recipe, I hope you’ll try my crack chicken spaghetti bake, crockpot spaghetti, and my fan favorite million dollar spaghetti!
Let’s bake this delicious baked spaghetti!
What I Love About Baked Spaghetti With Cream Cheese Recipe
- The creamy tomato sauce
- The crispy fried onion topping
- Makes plenty to go around
- Straightforward prep
Baked Spaghetti With Cream Cheese Ingredients
- Pasta: I like spaghetti for this recipe since the noodles can get a generous coating of sauce. You can use any type of pasta you have on hand! For shorter pasta, you’ll likely need a bit more than 8 ounces of dry pasta.
- Jar Spaghetti Sauce: This recipe calls for 2 jars of prepared spaghetti sauce. If you’d like to use homemade, try my homemade marinara sauce.
- Meat: I use 80/20 ground beef.
- Italian Seasoning: I use McCormick Italian Seasoning Perfect Pinch.
- Salt + Pepper
- Olive Oil: You’ll only add this if you don’t have enough drippings from cooking the meat.
- Onion: I use a yellow onion but a white one would work too.
- Bell Pepper: Use any color you’d like. Red is my preference.
- Garlic: Use fresh cloves.
- Cream Cheese: Use regular full-fat, not the low-fat version.
- Sour Cream: Adds creaminess to the cheese mixture.
- Mozzarella: Shred your own from the block. The stuff that comes pre-shredded in the bag is coated with cellulose which is obtained from wood pulp.
- Parmesan: Buy it in the containers from the deli and skip the stuff in the green container.
- Fried Onion: This is an unusual ingredient in the spaghetti dish, but my family loves it on top.
Tips
- Pasta Prep: As with all baked spaghetti recipes, you want to make sure you use good pasta prep techniques. Salt the water well before cooking. Don’t overcook your pasta when you boil it. Leave a little bite in it, and it will finish cooking in the oven!
- The Sauce: I use two layers to make this cream cheese spaghetti sauce. I find the cream component of the sauce comes together easier if your cream cheese and milk can sit out for about 30 minutes first. If your cream cheese is fresh from the fridge, I recommend cutting it into small cubes to help it melt faster.
Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead
- How To Store: To maximize the freshness of your leftovers, make sure you store this baked spaghetti with cream cheese recipe in a container with a tight-fitting lid to prevent it from drying out. I prefer to store spaghetti in a resealable plastic bag or glass containers because of the tomato-based sauce.
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? This will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.
- Can You Freeze This? This is a great make and freeze dish. Follow the instructions up to the point of baking. Allow it to cool completely before wrapping it well in cling wrap and putting it in the freezer.
- Do not top with the onions before freezing. Wait and put them on at the end of the bake as instructed.
- Make-Ahead Tips: As mentioned above, this baked spaghetti with cream cheese recipe freezes really well. It will taste as fresh as if you made it that day! You can also make ahead to the point of baking and put it in the fridge for a day or two. It’s a great way to make this a mid-week meal!
- Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.
How To Make Baked Spaghetti With Cream Cheese
- Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions.
- Brown the beef, add Italian seasoning and salt and pepper. Set aside.
- In a bowl, mix the cooked beef and 1 jar of marinara sauce.
- Saute onions, red peppers, and garlic. Remove from heat. Add cream cheese, sour cream, and Mozzarella to the skillet. Set aside.
- Spread 1/3 cup of sauce-meat mixture at the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- Spread out all the spaghetti.
- Spread the cream cheese-veggie mixture on top of the spaghetti.
- Add the sauce-meat mixture.
- Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese.
- Bake.
- Top with french fried onions and bake for 5 more minutes.
***See the full instructions below.
Serving Recommendations
This is delicious with a simple salad tossed with my super easy balsamic vinaigrette or my fully loaded Mediterranean salad. It’s also wonderful with my ever-fluffy Olive Garden breadsticks, or amazing herb garlic bread.
More Spaghetti Recipes
There are endless variations of spaghetti dishes that are all as delicious as the original! Check out these Spaghetti variations!
- Italian Spaghetti
- Chicken Spaghetti
- Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Spaghetti And Meatballs Recipe
- Spaghetti Recipe With Ground Beef
- Chicken Spaghetti With Rotel
- Instant Pot Spaghetti
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review, I love hearing your feedback! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Baked Spaghetti With Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 16 ounces dried spaghetti uncooked
- 2 (24-ounce) jar spaghetti sauce divided
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- as needed olive oil
- 1 cup yellow onion diced
- 1/2 cup sweet red pepper ribs and seeds removed then diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 12 ounces (1 1/2 -8 ounce packages) cream cheese softened at room temperature, and cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 cups Mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese grated
- 1 to 2 cups french fried onions
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF (177ºC). Butter a 9X13 inch baking dish; set aside.
- Cook spaghetti (16 ounces) according to package directions, just until al dente. Drain well and return the cooked pasta to the original pot it was cooked in. Add 1 jar of prepared marinara sauce and toss to evenly coat the pasta.
- In a large skillet, brown the beef (1 pound), add the Italian seasoning (1 tablespoon), salt (1 teaspoon), and pepper (1/2 teaspoon), and cook until there is no longer any pink. Remove the cooked beef to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside. Drain and discard all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the skillet. If you don't have 2 tablespoons of oil, add enough olive oil to compensate. (Just eyeball this. You only need enough oil to saute the veggies.)
- In a medium bowl mix the cooked beef and remaining 1 jar of prepared marinara sauce.
- Add onions (1 cup), red peppers (1/2 cup), and garlic (4 cloves) to skillet and saute until they are soft. Remove from heat. Add cream cheese (12 ounces), sour cream (1/4 cup), and Mozzarella (2 cups) to the skillet and stir until well combined. Set aside.
- In prepared baking dish, add about 1/3 of a cup of sauce-meat mixture, and spread to cover bottom of dish.
- Add all the spaghetti to baking dish and spread out evenly.
- Add the cream cheese-veggie mixture to baking dish and spread out evenly.
- Add the sauce-meat mixture to the baking dish and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese (1 1/2 cups).
- Bake in the preheated oven until the casserole is baked through the center, about 25 minutes.
- Remove the casserole and top with the french fried onions (1-2 cups) and bake another 5 minutes, watching carefully so the onions do not burn. SERVE!
Fans Also Made:
Notes
- Pasta Prep: As with all baked spaghetti recipes, you want to make sure you use good pasta prep techniques. Salt the water well before cooking. Don't overcook your pasta when you boil it. Leave a little bite in it, and it will finish cooking in the oven!
- The Sauce: I use two layers to make this cream cheese spaghetti sauce. I find the cream component of the sauce comes together easier if your cream cheese and milk can sit out for about 30 minutes first. If your cream cheese is fresh from the fridge, I recommend cutting it into small cubes to help it melt faster.
Nutrition
Reader Interactions
Comments
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Alli says
Yum this sounds amazing!! I love love love the addition of the fried onions. I could eat those all day every day. I need to make this.
Kathleen says
Hi Alli. Me too! Love fried onions 🙂 Hope you enjoy the spaghetti!
Shelley says
You don’t need to cook the noodles first?
Kathleen says
Hey Shelley. Step 2 in the instructions directs you to cooking the pasta according to the package directions. Does that help?
Jeannie says
Can you tell me about how many this serves?
Kathleen says
Hi Jeannie. It serves 6-8 😉
Margaret Hughes says
Hi,
Can you please tell me what French Fried Onions are? I am in Australia, not sure I have ever seen a tin?
Thanks
Kathleen says
Hi Margaret! They’re like a thinly battered, 1 inch diameter, shoe string onion ring. Hope that helps!
PHXcook says
Margaret: They’re a canned dried product from Durkee’s/French’s in the USA.I checked eBay-Australia. Not available down under. Easily made from scratch. See http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fried-onion-rings/.
Kathleen says
Thanks so much for the info!
Connie says
My favorite recipe find of the century!! Soooooo delicious. Company worthy.
Kathleen says
Thanks Connie! I’m so happy you think so 🙂
Cheryl Watts says
Loved it! I didn’t have spaghetti noodles so I improvised! Also I mixed the noodles right in with the cream cheese mixture before putting in the pan. My family loved it!
Kathleen says
Cheryl so happy to hear it!
helen says
I make something similar, but with potatoes and an alfredo type sauce. This sounds even better!
Martha Dee says
Where I’d you get that beautiful dish?
Kathleen says
My favorite place Home Goods and they had a few other fun shapes!!!
Lori says
I use a large can of the fried onions and in another (almost identical recipe I have) to save a bit of time you can put the butter and your veggies in a glass bowl and microwave for 2-3 minutes. Unbelievably, this “sautes” them! Then add in the cream cheese (I also use Cream Cheese with Chives for this recipe) and stir. The heated veggies melt down the cream cheese 🙂
Rhonda (@diningalone) says
That looks ridiculously good, wow!
Nancy says
No where could I find what you did with the parmesan cheese?
Did I miss something?
Kathleen says
Hey Nancy, it was me that missed something! I’ve update the recipe. Thanks so much 🙂
Julie says
So you would bake this first, then freeze? Any idea how long to bake once thawed to reheat?
cakewhiz says
omg! it’s after midnight here and now all i can think about is getting a plate of that spaghetti…lol
bellini says
It does sound perfect for every pot luck, a must try ..