Spaghetti Pie
Honestly, this spaghetti pie meal can’t be beat. It’s easy enough for a weeknight frenzy but delicious and satisfying enough for company.
When I announce that spaghetti pie is for dinner, I wish you could witness the reaction on all five (yes, counting my husband) of my boy’s faces. They jump and spin around me like mini tornadoes, hugging and kissing me like there’s no tomorrow, all because I made them spaghetti pie.
I’m kind of afraid they are going to find out just how simple this meal is and decide the hugs and kisses should be reserved for more time-intensive family favorites, but for now, I’ll take it.
If you aren’t familiar with spaghetti pie, please acquaint yourself immediately! We’ve been eating it for years and years and like the title of this post indicates, it truly is a family favorite.
The reason I haven’t shared it with you yet (I know, I know, I feel a bit guilty) is because I’ve been spending the last five years on my life’s greatest work: perfecting spaghetti pie. And here it is! In all it’s perfected, spaghetti pie glory.
Honestly, this meal can’t be beat. It’s easy enough for a weeknight frenzy but delicious and satisfying enough for company. (And talk about the perfect take-in meal – this one’s a winner.)
Think delicious, tender noodles suffused in a combination of creamy and red sauces and baked to perfection – saucy enough to eliminate tough, dried out noodles, and sturdy enough to hold it’s shape in delightful pie-shaped pieces. I’m telling you – it’s spaghetti pie perfection, people!
I can breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing I’ve finally posted this baby. Hope you love it as much as we do!
It’s one of those meals I could serve all week and come the seventh night, my boys would still be cheering. However, I would be gagging. Not because I don’t love me some spaghetti pie but because I, for one, need a little diversity in dinner, no matter how glorious the meal is.
What To Serve With This:
Divine Breadsticks or Cheesy Garlic Bread
Steamed vegetable like broccoli or peas
Simple green salad (or something more fancy like this Gourmet Green Salad)
One Year Ago: Save Recipes to Your Own Personal Recipe Box!
Two Years Ago: Orange Sweet Rolls
Three Years Ago: Steak Hoagies with Mushrooms, Onions and Peppers
Spaghetti Pie
Ingredients
- 12 ounces thin spaghetti or vermicelli noodles
- 1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey
- 1 small white or yellow onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (16-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 4 ounces light cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup lowfat cottage cheese
- ¾ cup Parmesan cheese, divided
- ¾ cup mozzarella cheese, divided
Instructions
- Lightly coat a deep 9 or 10-inch pie plate with cooking spray and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the noodles until al dente according to package directions. While the noodles boil, heat a large 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat and add the ground beef or turkey, breaking it into pieces with a wooden spoon. Add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally and continuing to break up the meat, until the meat is cooked through, 5-7 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and drain the excess grease, if any. Return the skillet to medium heat and stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, dried basil and oregano. Simmer the sauce over medium or medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
- When the noodles are done cooking, drain and return to the pot. Immediately stir in the cream cheese and toss the noodles by lightly lifting them up and over with tongs until the cream cheese is mostly melted. Stir in the cottage cheese, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Toss until the noodles are evenly coated. Stir in 2 cups of the red sauce. Keep the remainder of the red sauce warm on the stove.
- Scrape the noodles into the prepared pie plate and using a flat spatula, press the noodles evenly into the dish so they are tightly pressed together and evenly flat across the top. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese across the top.
- Bake the spaghetti pie for 20-22 minutes, until it is hot and bubbly and the cheese is golden on top. Let the dish rest for 10 minutes. Cut into slices and serve with remaining red sauce.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Sounds prefect for my family too! I do not have a deep dish pie plate though, do you think a 9″ cake pan would work?
I just made this tonight and my family loved it. Thanks for all the great recipes!
I tried this last night. It was delicious, and I prefer it to plain spaghetti, but not an instant favorite around here. I’m glad to add it into the rotation. Thanks!!
I made a batch of this for a friend that just had a baby and a batch for home. Everyone loved it! (Saying a lot for the 4 and 2 year old). I have made many of your recipes and they always turn out great. I trust you! You have been a blessing to me and my family. Thanks so much for what you do!
Had this the other night for the first time for my family. We don’t want to have traditional spagetti ever again! This was SO good!! (and I forgot to put the cottage cheese in. I added it the second night since we had leftovers and it was yummy!) I love your website and everything that is on it! Thanks!
This was delish! I made it with the ground beef and ricotta (not cottage cheese). Will be making this one again!
mel, i adore your blog. we made this last night, and i’m pretty sure i singlehandedly ate half the pan. you always post the BEST stuff!
I’m going to make this for a big family get-together. I probably will make 2 to 3 of them.I hate people who make changes to a recipe before trying the original first but I’m going to make one. I am a vegetarian and so are several members of the family. You can substitute mushrooms for the ground beef. Slice and saute the mushrooms, pulse in a food processor. Presto! Looks like ground beef, has the texture of ground beef, and truth be told – no-one can tell the difference. Yay!
I have made the little quinoa patties more than several times and am obsessed with them. They are good hot or cold. They are good for breakfast topped with a poached egg, good for a snack, good out of the pan….. You are my kind of gal! Everything I have tried has been put on my list of something to cook every week. The list is getting kind of crowded.
what is it about boys and spaghetti? my brother eats it 3-4 times a week and has since he was a kid!
My plans for boring spaghetti got a lot more fun, thanks to you! Used thin, whole wheat spaghetti and added lentils to the sauce.
I made this tonight & it was really good. I would suggest covering it with foil the first bit in the oven, then take the foil off to let the cheese brown. Uncovered, the cheese was already mostly brown after 19 minutes or so. Still very good, though!
I doubled the recipe, too, to make a pan for a friend. Definitely a workout for the arms when you’re stirring it all together!
Lorrie – I haven’t measured the sauce exactly, but I responded to one commenter above that a quart of sauce (four cups) would be enough. When I add up the liquid ounces in the sauce, it comes out to more like 5-6 cups sauce. So somewhere in between that amount (really only 2 cups goes in the noodles and the rest is for serving alongside so it can be a flexible amount).
How many cups of sauce? I have some frozen from yr spaghetti recipe and wanted to use tht instead of making new.
Thanks
I made this for dinner last night (with the help of my hubby, who got home from work a half hour early (woohoo!)). We almost followed the directions, except we were out of oregano and thin spaghetti, so we used a little more basil and regular spaghetti.
Aside from my 3 year old, who refuses to even try anything except hot dogs these days, we loved it. I am sure the 3 year old would have, too, had he deigned to take a bite. My eldest cleaned her plate, and my middle child complained only briefly about the fact that it has meat in it, which is a huge win these days. She said it smelled good the whole time it was cooking, and kept asking when it was done.
But the real win was with my husband, who spent a couple of years in Italy and is very down on “American” pasta. I convinced him to try this, and he agreed that while not authentic Italian, it is the perfect comfort food and represents that which is best in American pasta.
And I am off to heat up some leftovers for lunch. Thanks for the recipe!
So, I made it the night you posted it for dinner, and everyone loved it! It tastes fabulous for adults, too. I really love the creaminess of it!
I was happy to see the cottage cheese! My momma taught me to sub cottage cheese in lots of different dishes and no one would be the wiser! I use it in my lasagna (which we had last night) and any dip mixes that call for sour cream, I use cottage cheese and put it in the blender with the dip mix. The blender smooths it out…sometimes it may need a little milk to thin it out. It’s not as rich as using sour cream, but hey, if you’re going to eat your weight in chips and dip why not save a “few” fat grams!!
I think Lilly will love this spaghetti pie and since we have spaghetti every week, I’m going to change things up and try this next week! Thanks!
Plllleeeeaaaassee hope my sis doesn’t see this. This is also her favorite meal, but her recipe is kinda caca. :/Cannot wait to subtly suggest yours. 😉
I have never had spaghetti pie! I grew up with a mom that didn’t like spaghetti so we didn’t have it that often! This makes me want to try it though!
I love love spaghetti! My kiddos, after 8 years of trying, are FINALLY starting to come around to the fact that it may just be yummy enough to eat. I’m absolutely making this tonight and here’s to hoping my kids will love this more than normal spaghetti (and seriously, isn’t all food better when it’s shaped like a pie?!)
This is delicious! Everybody loved it, even my son who usually doesn’t like spaghetti. I used sour cream and it worked great. I also added 1/8 teaspoon of ground fennel seed to the sauce to give it a “sausage” flavor and I loved it! Thanks for an easy, economical, and extremely tasty dinner!
Made this last night and everyone loved it! Thanks again for another great recipe.
Such a cute post! You need to make this spaghetti pie one more time soon and have someone on standby with a video camera. Make the big announcement and get it on video. It’s precious and you’ll love it one day when they’re all grown up!
Your pie sounds delicious, thanks for perfecting for the masses. 🙂
Made this for dinner last night… yummy! I used Italian sausage for the beef, and a jar of spaghetti sauce plus a pint of homemade spicy marinara sauce (not big chunky tomato people here). It was delish! My 13 yr old son said this is better than lasagna! Oh, I didn’t have ricotta or cottage, so I was a bit skeptical using sour cream.. but it tasted great. Thanks for all your hard work! 🙂
I had baked pasta on the agenda for tomorrow but I think I will make this instead! Thank you for a new version of what I was used to making!
Okay so I have to admit at first this sounded a little odd but I was intrigued. So I decided to make this for dinner tonight and let me just say this – YUM! This is definitely going to be a regular for us. Thanks!
We are a pasta loving family!
My hubby is Italian and could eat pasta every night I can’t wait to make this for him !
Thanks so much!
Made this for dinner tonight as written and it turned out fabulous! We all loved it and went back for seconds. Next time I am going to try making the sauce with spicy italian sausage because we’re big spice lovers 😉
I’ve been eating spaghetti pie since I was a child and now cook it for my children, it is a great way to use leftover pasta (any shape)
How did you know?! I just sampled a spaghetti pie at my local grocery store and it was alright, but I thought I could find better, and that then it would be awesome. And then, voila! Here you come with the perfect recipe! I can’t wait to try this. 🙂
Thanks for sharing! This spaghetti pie sure looks like a winner! A good change from regular pasta night.
I imagine greek yogurt would work as well, if sour cream is a good swap. I love this one…and I think my gluten free pasta would even work in it. I’ll be trying this one out this weekend! Thanks again, Mel! Inspired!!
My mom used to make something like this all the time for my family when I was growing up. This definitely brought me back!
I LOVE spaghetti pie! And I keep losing my recipes for it. So I think I’ll bookmark yours and be Very Happy Indeed. 😉
This is exactly what I need in spaghetti. My husband loves mushy-noodle-jarred-sauce spaghetti and I just can’t get on board. I think spaghetti pie represents a meeting of the minds for us.
Spaghetti pie has been a family favorite for lo these many years. Your post brought to mind an amusing memory from the time when my neighbor first introduced it to me. 🙂 http://www.fransfavs.com/2011/08/spaghetti-pie/
My in-laws are coming to visit for 2.5 weeks. They’re not overly adventurous with new recipes/ingredients but I don’t like serving them the same thing over and over again. This looks perfect! Can’t wait to try it.
BTW, I’m having issues with saving this recipe to ZipList. It says that I’ve saved the recipe but when I go to add tags to it in my recipe box, the recipe is not there. Any suggestions? Thanks!!
I have GOT to stop checking your site right before lunch! I adore spaghetti, and even baked spaghetti, but haven’t come up with a favorite “pie” yet. I expect you’ve done it for me 🙂
I was planning on putting together a lasagna tonight and got all the ingredients but I’ve changed the menu to SPAGHETTI PIE A LA MEL’S! Thank you for this timely recipe entry. The only thing I don’t have is the cream cheese but I have a tiny bit of half & half leftover that I plan to throw in in place of the cream cheese. I will use ricotta and a little cottage cheese as well. Again, thanks. I am a big fan of your recipes. Just made the COCONUT WASHBOARD COOKIES yesterday!
How much sauce do you think this makes? I would like to just use my homemade sauce that I bottle. A quart of that is probably enough, right?
Jill – I would probably give baking directions and let the family bake the spaghetti pie. It reheats fine as leftovers (in individual portions) but I’m not sure about the whole pan (unless you are bringing it to them piping hot).
Becca – yes, 4 cups would be plenty of sauce for this.
This looks delicious!! My kids could live on pasta. They would if I let them. We will definitely have to try this. Thanks for posting and keeping up with all your hard work. 🙂
I must say… YOU ROCK!!!!! I’m a northerner and grew up eating baked ziti. Married myself a southerner and he started asking for baked spaghetti. I can’t make it like his nana, but I”m thinking this is going to win him (and the kids) over!! Thanks so much!! I found your blog two weeks ago and haven’t looked back! 🙂
Question please…….I would like to make this to take to a friend’s family who just lost a loved one. Do you think it reheats well, or should I assemble and include baking directions? Just trying to avoid a dried out dinner! Thanks so much….LOVE your recipes! 🙂
Hi Olivia, I’ve never made this in advance. It probably would work, although it might be just a touch more dry from sitting longer before baking. It freezes like a lasagna, pretty well. I’ve only tried it once or twice and it was a while ago but I baked it from frozen and remember it turning out fine (I froze the remaining red sauce separately and warmed on the stove). When I freeze this next time, I’ll update the recipe with more specifics.
I eat spaghetti with sour cream bolognese all the time. So this recipe is a must-try soon! I bet it makes the best leftovers!
This sounds tasty. I have some leftover turkey pepperoni in the fridge that I might add to this to make for a tasty dinner.
Hi Mel,
I’ve just found your blog and I love every recipe I’ve tried! Couple questions about the spaghetti pie recipe… do you ever pre-make it, refrigerate, and bake a few days later; and does it freeze well? Thanks!!
Spaghetti pie: it’s what’s for dinner tonight! Thank Mel!
A hearty “bravo” to you, Mel. We’ve made variants on this idea over the years and it is easy peasy and frankly a great way to use up the last of the pasta in those partly used boxes in the cupboard.
Wow! Since your family’s favorite meals are also our family’s favorite, I trust you on this one! This recipe is going on the schedule for next week–thanks! 🙂
Spaghetti pie, where have you been all of my life? I have made lasagna, baked ziti and a million other baked pastas, but can you believe I have never made spaghetti pie? Perhaps that’s because I was waiting for you to perfect it, Mel? Anyway, I am going to rectify the lack of spaghetti pie in my life immediately!