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And just like that, it’s the day after Christmas!
I can’t believe it has come and gone, but I’m excited to have a laid back week ahead of us! I hope you guys all had an amazing Christmas. I want to hear all about it, and tell you all about what the Gerard family has been up to the last few days, but first, I need to tell you all about this incredible pasta dish. So much to share!!
This Million Dollar Spaghetti, is one of my favorite meals to make when feeding a lot of people. Especially when a lot of those people are hungry brothers and friends. For everyone who loves, cheesy, meaty, pasta, this is your dish. It’s SO easy to prepare, full of spaghetti, spicy Italian sausage and cheese. Better known as a major winner food combo!
I actually served this dish up last week, but I am posting it today in hopes that it will be a great easy dinner for you guys to make for your family and friends this week.
We had a great week, but sadly some of my family members are headed out today (Abby is headed all the way to India!). But with some leaving, more will be coming, so large amounts of food will still be in high demand. To quickly recap the last few days around here, we started the Christmas fun a little early on Thursday and did a family snowmobile trip up on Vail Pass over to the little town of Red Cliff. It was pretty spur of the moment, but I am so glad that we ALL got to go. Every single immediate Gerard family member was in tow (meaning all nine of us including mom and dad) plus my two cousins, Maggie and Abby, Brendan and Malachi’s girlfriends, Lyndsie and Caitlin, and Kai’s friend Kyle who, one made the trip happen thanks to his four snowmobiles, and two, is basically just another family member at this point. So a grand total of fourteen people…on five snowmobiles. Don’t even ask how we made that happen (think snowboarders literally in tow), but we did… and it was awesome!
We finished the night off with family bowling. Yeah, family bowling, because that’s what you do at night in a ski town…
Friday was pretty mellow, Christmas Eve had a few last minute shopping trips in the morning with gingerbread house making in the afternoon. Christmas Day was spent opening gifts, lounging around, a family hike, making a few Bloody Marys and of course, cooking! Nothing fancy, but pretty perfect in my mind. So how was everyone else’s Christmas?
Now that my cousins have left, the next group is headed our way, which should be interesting, as some of them have never seen snow before. Bren’s girlfriend Lyndsie has her entire family coming in tomorrow and staying through New Years until the third, so my parents are going to have a very full house.
I have no idea what I am cooking up this week, still trying to recover from the weekend of mad cooking and cocktail making, but I’m sure there will be lots. Since Lyn’s family has yet to try this pasta dish, odds are that I will be making it sometime this week.
I like to think of this dish as a very easy, deconstructed lasagna. It has all the same flavors of a classic lasagna, but minus all the cooking steps, layers, and time, YES! I guess that’s why we call it million dollar spaghetti, huh? Tastes like a million bucks, but it really is easy, and also pretty cheap to make…but don’t tell your guest that, DUH. 🙂
The one major way this dish varies from lasagna however, is that the spaghetti on the bottom of this dish is treated like spaghetti carbonara. Before you bake it, you toss it with eggs to create a rich and creamy sauce. It’s fantastic and sets the dish apart from just another spaghetti casserole.
Trust me, this is not your grandma’s spaghetti bake!
Million Dollar Spaghetti.
Servings: 8 servings
Calories Per Serving: 638 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup whole milk cottage cheese
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 pound ground spicy Italian sausage
- 3 cups marinara sauce, homemade or store-bought
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat and boil the pasta until al dente according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, parsley and Parmesan. Drain the spaghetti, and add it right back to the hot pot. Add the butter and the egg mixture to the spaghetti, and quickly toss until evenly coated and the eggs have formed a sauce. Add the cottage cheese and cream cheese and toss until combined. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and brown all over, about 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the marinara sauce. Spread mixture over the spaghetti. Add the mozzarella cheese in an even layer over top.
- Transfer the baking dish to the oven and bake 30 to 45 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is lightly browned on top. Cool 5 minutes before serving. Serve with parmesan and basil, if desired.
Everyone’s gonna eat it all up.
I made this for my cousin’s graduation party, EVERYONE loved it. My uncle asked for leftovers, my mom and aunt asked for the recipe. My cousins are STILL talking about this dish one year later. I’m about to print it again because I’m having them over for a game night. Great crowd pleaser!
I am so glad you loved this Ana! Thank you so much!
I love cooking and nothing makes me more giddy than finding a new food blog. I just added this to next weeks menu and will be back soon to try more recipes.
Giving 5 stars before even trying because, come on, how can this NOT be delicious? 🙂
Haha I swear it is! Let me know how it turns out for you Beth! Thank you!
So I tried this recipe and I’m not sure why, but it didn’t turn out very well. Since the recipe called for spaghetti and canned sauce, I just substituted 4 cans of Chef Boy R-D beef-a-roni and added a pound of Velveeta cheese in place of the motzarela. I didn’t have any fresh eggs but I did have 2 servings of caramel flan in the fridge so I added that to the Chef-Boy-R-D and baked the dish for 45 minutes. It didn’t taste like a million bucks. Maybe I need to add the parsley next time.
HI Fred, I don’t recommend using Chef Boy R-D or Velveeta. I would follow the recipe if possible. Please let me know if you have other questions. Thanks!
Have you ever tried subbing in ricotta in place of the cottage cheese?
I have not, but I am sure that would be delicious! Please let me know if you have any other questions. Hope you love this recipe! 🙂
I would love love love to make this but my husband and kids don’t like cottage cheese or ricotta cheese. Is there anything I can substitute for it or can I just leave it out? Thank you so much this looks amazing!!!!
Hi Lindsay! Try leaving it out and maybe doubling up on the mozzarella. I think that would be great. Let me know if you have questions. Hope this recipe is a hit!
It’s July & we’ve got the AC going. I need some comfort food so I’m making this for dinner.
Yes comfort food for the win!
I just ate dinner and after reading this I’m hungry again.
Haha, hope you get to have this one soon!
Tieghan, I made this last night and it was really good! We loved it!
Mine turned out a tish dry so next time I’ll add some cream or pasta water or a combo of both! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Jessica! So happy you liked it, hope that helps next time (: Thank you!
T. Every time I took a bite of the first MDS (on to the second batch right now), I would groan and say yuuuum! My sister, and probably a lot of others have made baked spaghetti, but you have taken it to a whole new level. This is going to be my Christmas Eve meal from now on. Just honing my skill at it now, it might take a few more times before Christmas Eve to get it just right. Heh heh.
I prob won’t make it exactly the same every time. This time I am going to make the meat sauce per instructions and then encase mozz-bits with seasoned hamburger to make big balls to go on top of spaghetti, then sprinkle with cheese, bake as directed. Don’t know how it will taste yet.
Yuk! Your part of the recipe was the bomb – as usual, my hamburger mozz balls were awful – after the first one I didn’t eat anymore, but we gobbled up MDS just the same 🙂
Such a bummer to hear they weren’t what you were hoping! next time!
YAY! SO happy you like it! thank you so so much!
Made the Christmas eve meal! So awesome!
is it 1oz. cream cheese or 1 80z. cream cheese?
so sorry! It’s 1 (8 ounce) package.
I made this spaghetti last night and it was delicious! I’m excited to eat the leftovers! I used store bought sauce because honestly you can buy really good sauce these days. And for a busy weeknight meal using the jar sauce makes it a lot easier. I used about a jar and a half. My only change was using ricotta instead of the cottage cheese because that is what I happened to have in the fridge. I will definitely make this again!
Hi!! SO happy you liked it, thanks Casey!
This recipe is in my must do list. My mouth is getting watering awhile I see your beautiful photos.
Yay!! SO happy you like it!
Tiegan, I literally just came back to say tonight is the third time I’ve made this since you posted it ! And it gets better every time. I use penne, because I’m gluten free and I feel like the GF penne holds up better than GF spaghetti. I also sub ricotta for the cottage cheese because I always have ricotta chillin in my fridge (hellooo ricotta breakfast toast). Can’t wait for your cookbook !
Awe, thank you! 🙂 So happy you enjoy this recipe!! You are so kind!
Absolutely excellent. I will definitely make again. Easy for week day night meal. Next time I would add extra sauce, other than that perfect.
I am so glad you loved this! Thank you Roxanne!
I know I am late…but I finally made this over the weekend and it was delightful! Thanks so much for sharing!
So happy you liked it Angela! Thank you!
This looks delicious, but I have a quick question. The recipe mentions a 9×13 pan, but the pictures show a rounded baking dish. I think I’d prefer a deeper more narrow baking dish vs the 9×13 like you’ve done, but did you have to adjust the baking times, or was it as listed above?
Hi! So I just used my large staub pot that I boiled my pasta in. No need to adjust the baking time for a deeper pot. It should be about the same. Let me know if you have questions. Hope you love this recipe. Thank you! 🙂