Million Dollar Spaghetti With a Cream Cheese Middle and a Mozzarella Lid

It is 5:45 on a Sunday, the oven is already ticking up to 350°F, and eight people are going to ask what is in the middle. This million dollar spaghetti recipe is 61 minutes on the clock, and the answer is a creamy, cheesy layer hiding under the meat sauce. It looks like a regular baked pasta until the first slice, and then it gets very interesting very fast.

Spaghetti, a cream cheese middle and a mozzarella lid: the dish with a secret layer, and you get to decide who finds out.

Cook 16 oz of spaghetti until just shy of al dente, about 8 minutes, and drain it. Brown 1 lb of ground beef, drain the fat, stir in 3 cups of jarred marinara and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix 8 oz of softened cream cheese with 1 cup of sour cream, 1 cup of cottage cheese and 1 tsp of garlic powder until smooth. Half the spaghetti goes into the buttered 9x13-inch dish, then all of the cream mixture, then the rest of the spaghetti. The meat sauce and 2 cups of mozzarella go on top, and the oven does the rest: 30 to 35 minutes uncovered, until the edges bubble. On SwipeCart you swipe the dish once, and the agent shops the spaghetti, the cream cheese and the mozzarella into the cart together.

How to make it

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with 2 tbsp butter. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Cook 16 oz spaghetti until just shy of al dente, about 8 minutes, then drain.
3. Brown 1 lb ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat, about 6 to 8 minutes. Drain fat, stir in 3 cups jarred marinara sauce, and simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.
4. In a bowl, mix 8 oz softened cream cheese, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup cottage cheese, and 1 tsp garlic powder until smooth.
5. Spread half the drained spaghetti in the baking dish, then layer on all of the cream cheese mixture. Top with remaining spaghetti.
6. Pour the meat sauce evenly over the top and sprinkle with 2 cups shredded mozzarella.
7. Bake uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes until the cheese is melted and the edges bubble. Rest 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Notes

Cooked leftovers of this million dollar spaghetti recipe keep three to four days refrigerated, per USDA FSIS. Cut the pan into portions before it goes into the fridge, so tomorrow's lunch is one square, one plate and one microwave.

Baked pasta dishes like this one generally freeze well. Wrap portions tightly, thaw them in the fridge overnight, and reheat until steaming hot all the way through.

By day two the layers tend to firm up, and a cold square holds its shape on the fork better than a fresh one does.

The spaghetti is pulled early on purpose, just shy of al dente, because it keeps cooking in the oven. Taste a strand at 8 minutes. If it still has a firm center, you are right where you want to be.

The 5-minute rest at the end is part of the recipe. The cheese is molten, and a slice cut too early slumps across the plate and spreads.

The 2 tbsp of butter goes on the dish, not in the sauce. Spread it up the sides as well as across the bottom, because the cheese will find any bare spot and bond with it.

Swaps that actually work

In a million dollar spaghetti recipe, the cream cheese layer is the point. Cream cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese and garlic powder, mixed until smooth, is the middle that gives the dish its name. Leave it alone and move everything else.

Ground turkey stands in for the beef. Cook it through to 165°F, and expect a lighter sauce that may want a little more salt. Swap the ground beef for turkey and the sauce does not hold a grudge.

Ricotta can replace the cottage cheese if that is what the fridge offers. The layer comes out a little richer and a little smoother.

A jarred marinara you already like is the right one to use, since the sauce is the only thing here you do not make yourself. Pick the one you would eat on its own.

Penne works for the pasta if you prefer short shapes, and the dish becomes something very close to baked ziti, which is also very good. Spaghetti gives you the long strands and the layered look, so that is the one to choose for this version.

The swap that costs you the dish is skipping the cream cheese layer. Without it you are baking spaghetti with sauce, which is perfectly respectable and not what the name promised.

If it goes wrong

The cream layer is lumpy. The cream cheese was not soft enough when it met the sour cream. If it is already in the dish, spread it as thin as you can with the back of a spoon and let the 30 to 35 minutes soften what it can. Next time, set the block out on the counter and mix until the bowl looks like frosting.

It is watery. The beef fat did not get drained, or the sauce was thin going in. Give the pan the full 5-minute rest so the liquid settles, and spoon off any that pools. Next time, drain the fat per the method and let the sauce simmer the full 5 minutes.

The spaghetti is soft. It went past just shy of al dente before it ever saw the oven. Serve it in bowls with a spoon and call it comfort food, because it is. Next time, pull it at 8 minutes and drain it thoroughly.

The edges dried out and browned before the middle bubbled. The dish ran hot at the rim. Tent loose foil over the top for the rest of the bake, and cut around the crisp edges. Some people fight over those.

It is flat. Salt, and then a taste of the sauce before it goes in the dish. The garlic powder sits in the cream layer, so the sauce needs its own seasoning with the salt and black pepper called for in the method.

What to serve with it

The default is a garlic bread and a salad, and this pan is rich enough that it does not need anything else.

The better version of the default is a sharp green salad with a lemony dressing and a handful of arugula. The pan is creamy, cheesy and soft, so give it something crisp and sharp to sit beside.

The thing in the fridge that lifts it is a pinch of red pepper flakes or a few torn basil leaves, either of which wakes the top layer up without changing it.

It makes a good lunch the next day, reheated until steaming hot. Plan on two squares if you were the one holding the spatula.

Why this one earns its place

This is the dish for a table of eight that needs to be fed and a host who wants to be asked for the recipe. It looks modest, tastes like it has a trust fund, and the cream cheese goes in out of sight.

Plenty of baked pastas are fine. This one earns a second look at the table and a small, delighted silence at the first bite, and you can keep the smirk to yourself.

Keep this million dollar spaghetti recipe in your rotation for the Sundays that need a crowd-pleaser. If you like baked pasta, baked ziti is the closest cousin, and cheesy bacon macaroni bake is the richer, cheesier one. For a pan this size, meal prep for the week is the system version of using leftovers on purpose.

More like this: all Italian-American recipes in Crave Corner.