Something magical happens when you bake spaghetti – it turns into a whole other dish with flavors that are completely different. If you have leftover bolognese or meat sauce on hand, try this. You really can’t go wrong with cheese, noodles, and sauce baked to perfection.
Give me ALL the cheesy baked spaghetti ALL the time. Something magical happens when you bake spaghetti. I feel like it turns into a whole other dish with flavors that are completely different from just regular bolognese. I think it has something to do with the fact that there’s a huge amount of cheese. Or maybe it’s just that it reminds me of lasagna. Or maybe it’s a nostalgia thing because baked spaghetti used to be my go-to dish when I was a kid.
Fun fact: if you you go to a casual Chinese restaurant, like an Hong Kong style cafe, they’ll always have spaghetti on the menu. There’ll be fried spaghetti, creamy spaghetti, house special spaghetti with a ketchup-like sauce, and of course, there will be my favorite, baked spaghetti! But, to be honest, the baked spaghetti I had as a kid was nothing like this because back then I didn’t eat beef. So, my baked spaghetti of choice had deep-fried pork chops, some sort of creamy tomato sauce and cheese. Sometimes there were bits of corn and peas in it. Sounds wrong, but was oh so right.
Ingredients
- 4 ounces spaghetti
- 2-3 cups bolognese or meat sauce
- 1-2 cups shredded cheese, depending on how cheesy you’re feeling
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Heat up your pasta sauce over medium to medium low heat.
COOKING METHOD
Cook the pasta 1-2 minutes shorter than the package suggests. You’re going to be finishing the pasta in sauce and it’s going to bake in the oven, so the key here is undercooked pasta. Reserve some pasta water, then drain the spaghetti and place back into the pot. Add about half of your warmed meat sauce and toss, over medium heat, until the pasta is glossy and well coated. If dry, add a touch of pasta water.Place the pasta in an oven proof baking or casserole dish and top with the remaining meat sauce. Evenly sprinkle on the shredded cheese and place on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any drips).
Bake until the cheese is melted, golden and crispy, 30-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and enjoy! Be careful, it’ll be very hot and quite addictive!
