Spaghetti Casserole

One of our favorite recipes here at the apartment is the Spaghetti Casserole.  I love it because it tastes better as leftovers than plain spaghetti does.  And when it's just the two of us it carries for a couple days. :)  It's really nice to make before I know I'm going to be away, so I know Jon gets a good meal with easy clean up. :)

Ingredients:
(fills up a 9x13 "casserole pan")
2 lb hamburger
1 large (4 lb 3 oz) container of Prego Traditional Italian sauce (Use whatever is your favorite traditional spaghetti sauce, or make homemade....but I'm not gifted in that area yet.) I use about 3/4 of the container.

Zita noodles (or whatever noodles you want)
2 bags of shred cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you want really)  We love cheese, so I load it big time! :)

Directions: (read all before you begin)
1. Boil water/ cook pasta and drain.  (You need enough pasta to cover the pan evenly twice.)
2. Brown hamburger (drain) [My skillet is not big enough to hold the hamburger and the added sauce later.  So when doing step #6 only add half of the meat sauce if you have all of the meat cooked.]
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
4. Wipe hamburger skillet with paper towel to get rid of extra grease/fat left in pan.
5. Return hamburger to pan and add half of your sauce (enough to fill the bottom of your casserole pan).
6.  Put the meat sauce in the casserole pan.
7. With the pasta cooled by now, layer your pasta on top of the meat sauce.  Do not overlap.
8. Layer with lots of cheese. :)
9. [Skip this step if you were able to cook all of hamburger at once.]  Brown other half of hamburger.  Drain. Wipe skillet.  Put hamburger back in skillet, add sauce enough to layer the casserole pan again.
10. Put the rest of your meat sauce (on top of the cheese layer) in your casserole pan.
11. Layer evenly your pasta again.
12. Load up the cheese! :)
13. Put in oven for 15-20 minutes or until you can put your finger through the casserole and it's warm and the cheese is melted.

*Note: The last batch I made was our favorite.  The directions above is what I did.  However, in the past I layered the casserole differently.  The order in the past was: sauce, cheese, pasta, sauce, cheese.
Jon and I really liked how much more cheesy it tasted by layering the cheese on top of the pasta.  But do what you and your family likes the best.


I serve it with garlic bread: butter bread or leftover buns, sprinkle a good amount of garlic salt, put under broiler until your liking. Yumm!


Enjoy!! :)


                                What the casserole looks like after it's 3/4 gone. :)

Comments

  1. just kidding. I'm making it tomorrow for Mike and some of the guys :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing this, Mary! I'm going to try it sometime!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Angela! Thanks for asking. I could use some more recipes as well. Can't believe people ask for mine! I haven't been cooking for very long! eek!
    And Megan, tell me how it went. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks mary, cant wait to make this. ill let you know when i do

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Erin! It's really good. The key is to add a lot of cheese! :)

    ReplyDelete

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