Baked Spasagna
Baked Spasagna is a mix between spaghetti and lasagna. This is a hearty Italian dinner for a crowd!
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BAKED SPASAGNA
Is it spaghetti? Is it lasagna? It’s….both. Just imagine spaghetti noodles mixed with the same yummy ricotta mixture that is usually found in
the layers of lasagna. Then it’s all baked and topped with your favorite meat sauce or meatless if that’s what you’re going for.
How is Baked Spasagna different from Baked Spaghetti? Not much. The ricotta layer in this Baked Spasagna is so delicious!
It’s good and full of flavor. I’m not going to say that it’s healthy by any means but it’s a comfort dish that the whole family will love. Supposedly it’s a knock off from a dish from the restaurant Cheddar’s but since I haven’t been there I can’t vouch for that.
This makes a heaping 9X13 pan of pasta so prepare to feed a crowd or even half it.
HOW TO MAKE THIS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
- Cook spaghetti al dente according to package directions. Drain and place in large mixing bowl.
- In another mixing bowl, stir together sour cream, ricotta, half-and-half, mozzarella, oregano, basil, pepper, garlic, salt, and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese.
- Add above cheese mixture to the spaghetti.
- Mix gently until spaghetti is evenly coated with mixture.
- Gently place spaghetti mixture into prepared dish. Top with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven, remove foil and place dish on cooling rack for 10 minutes.
- While pasta is cooking, prepare the meat sauce. For the meat sauce: Add ground beef in a skillet over medium heat and brown meat well. Add salt and pepper. Add the onion and cook until soft. Drain meat and set aside. Add spaghetti sauce and let simmer for about ten minutes.
- Cut pasta into squares and top with meat sauce.
Spaghetti noodles are mixed with the cheesy mixture that you would usually put in lasagna.
OTHER ITALIAN RECIPES:
- Baked Ziti
- Chicken Spaghetti
- Taco Lasagna
- Easy Baked Chicken Parmesan
- Skillet Baked Ziti
- The Best Baked Ziti
- Lasagna Soup
- Italian Sausage and Peppers
- Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
Baked Spasagna
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs (24 ounces) spaghetti noodles, uncooked
- 6 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 8 ounces ricotta cheese
- 8 ounces sour cream
- 1 1/4 cups half-and-half
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Meat Sauce:
- 12 ounces ground beef
- 1/2 cup chopped white onion
- 1 (24 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
- Cook spaghetti al dente according to package directions. Drain and place in large mixing bowl.
- In another mixing bowl, stir together sour cream, ricotta, half-and-half, mozzarella, oregano, basil, pepper, garlic, salt, and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese.
- Add above cheese mixture to the spaghetti. Mix gently until spaghetti is evenly coated with mixture.
- Gently place spaghetti mixture into prepared dish. Top with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven, remove foil and place dish on cooling rack for 10 minutes.
- While pasta is cooking, prepare the meat sauce. For the meat sauce: Add ground beef in a skillet over medium heat and brown meat well. Add salt and pepper. Add the onion and cook until soft. Drain meat and set aside. Add spaghetti sauce and let simmer for about ten minutes.
- Cut pasta into squares and top with meat sauce.
Notes
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Make it all the time and it always comes out perfect.Â
Thank you!
Well after making lasagna every Christmas Eve for 30 years, I tried this last year.  I made meat sauce on the side.  It was delicious.  Easy and fast to assemble for my crowd of 20 people… and THAT is why I’m making this again this year for Christmas…Everyone enjoyed it….
Awesome!
We love it. We don’t like tomato sauce in the lasagna.  I have trouble with too much acidity in tomatoes. This way, I can make the spaghetti and cheeses and those that want the sauce can use it.  It’s fast, easy and a family favorite.  They love it even better than my homemade lasagna or manicotti.  I would recommend giving it a try. I do add a little nutmeg to my cheeses when I mix them. I use it in my regular lasagna and it’s got a great surprise flavor..
That’s amazing!
Family favorite. For everyone. Husband, kids, parents and sisters. Great for a gathering. Live that the sauce is separate. I have two family members that do not like sauce.Â
So happy you like it!
Can you use all ricotta instead of the sour cream?
Sure!!
I have 8 kids, 7 in elementary school, and they all loved this . Try getting 8 kids to like anything takes an act of God. Thanks for the recipe this will be made instead of lasagna!
Haha bless your heart. I’m the youngest of ten kids and it was always a party!
I spent a lot of time to find something such as
this
We have been eating Spasagna at Cheddars for years now. Instead of a meat sauce, try it with Alfredo sauce or do it with 1/2 marinara and 1/2 Alfredo. It is delicious. I decided to try and make it at home because we all love it. Thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome!
Made this for a church potluck. Makes a lot and was a huge hit, lots of people requesting the recipe and/or for me to make it again!
Tried Cheddar’s version for the first time a month ago and YUMMMY!!!! Wondering if there is a way to make it ahead. I have a girls weekend coming up and we want to limit cooking as much as possible (we have crafts/sewing to do) so I’d love to prepare it ahead and carry it in a cooler
Yes, you can definitely make this ahead of time!
I just had Spasagna for the first time at Cheddar’s yesterday. The serving was enormous so I ate a portion and brought the other half home for lunch today. Now I loved it the way it was made but I see I could have issues with my husband, he doesn’t like anything “dry”. So do you think it would be feasible to add sauce with the cheese mixture when blending and then put more sauce on when you serve it?
Yes. I think that would be a great idea.
Love this recipe and I don’t change a thing. I use ground italian sausage and this dish is so good. I like to make the whole recipe and freeze half of it for later as it reheats really well. One full batch of this is enough to feed 6-8 if you do side salads and veggies, so a half batch easily feeds two adults and two kids. Love it.
Does it have to be a glass pan? I dont have one…
No. You can use whatever pan you can find. Good luck!
Do you think substituting the spaghetti for baked spaghetti squash strings (not sure what they would be called, faux pasta? lol) would work?
Yes! I’m a huge fan of substituting spaghetti squash for spaghetti. Great idea!
For the first time ever my end product looked like the pictures on the blog! WOOOHOO!!! This was very yummy! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Yay!! Super decadent but yummy, right?
I’m thinking about doing this with chicken and adding spinach to it…do you think that would still work. Without adding the sauce at the end, or would it be to dried out?
I think it would be good. I don’t think it will dry out if you cover it with foil when baking.
Thank you for sharing…made this for today’s Valentines dinner for my daughter and niece and they loved it! I don’t get the haters ….I still make classic lasagna but this is a great alternative for working or busy Moms.Was a lot faster.And it was cheaper also.Anyway…thanks a bunch 😉
You’re welcome Trudy!
This recipe was awesometastic!!!! I made it as is the first time and it was amazing. I made some alterations the second and third time using goat cheese and a veggie sauce and some other minor modifications and it was still yumazing! Thanks so much for posting this! I will blog my version with a link back to your original recipe. Good stuff!! 🙂
I just made this last night and let me tell you it is probably one of the most amazing recipes I have found in a long time. It was so easy to make and absolutely DELICIOUS and that is an understatement!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!!
My kids love this recipe! My boyfriend made it one day for something different and now instead of lasagna, we have spasagna…same premise just MUCH LESS work! And it’s absolutely, positively delicious!
Gotta try this!! Sounds great and lots of folks saying it was great and easy too…my kind of meal!
As for Dr. Doug…he’s the only one that had to knock it. It always amazes me why people have to
make the effort to be negative…especially when they haven’t even tried it! Just ‘click on’ to
another page and let it go…just sayin!
Spasagna was my favorite dish from Cheddar’s when we had one where I lived here in Illinois. When I first came across this recipe, I was ecstatic and it does taste just like the dish from Cheddars!
Recipe sounds great. What is half and half please. Cheers Mandy
Half and half is half cream, half milk.
Can I make this ahead and bake the next day? I have company coming and need to do something easy but ymmy.
Sure. I don’t see why not.
This sounds delicious. I can’t wait to try it.
Thank you for sharing!!
Dr.Doug get a clue and try something new before you knock it…..have made this a few times now and it’s a huge it even used cottage cheese instead of ricotta & still loved it…..your missing out buddy!!!!
Made this last night when we had family in town. It was a hit and so easy!
Great!!!
wow, spasagna is a mouthful! I’ve never heard of this, and I had to click over when i saw it on your sidebar…my darn picky kids don’t do lasagna these days…
This spasagna dish looks disgusting…plain and simple. It does not have the same “marriage” of ingredients as a real, classic lasagna! Why try and be innovative with a classic dish? Stick to the basics, kiddo.
Dr. Doug
Thanks Dr. Doug. Don’t knock it til you try it. Just sayin.
True class!
Dr. Doug,
Perhaps you never heard the words, “Change is good”
Thank you for posting Christy! Such a shame that people don’t have better things to do with their time than criticize. I’ve realized that your recipes aren’t for everyone. But, hey, that’s because I have an open mind and appreciate everything you do for your readers. 🙂
Thanks Brenda!
To each his own. What looks disgusting to you is not the finished product, it is a process & pretty sure Lasagna looks less edible before it is cooked also – maybe next time help your wife with the actual cooking. Also in this day & age with two parents working in a family that loves Lasagna (as what family does not love Lasagna) this dish can be made on a weekday. Now if you can’t see how this is exciting to so many good for you, but for me & others this is truly a happy day for cooking.
Wow haven’t made a recipe yet the whole family didn’t love…..just wondering if you could freeze any leftovers for later..thank you for making dinner so yummy and different with so many recipes to choose from dinner is never the same!!!!!!
I don’t see why not? It would freeze well I think.
Thank just one other quicky how would you rehears frozen leftovers from this meal?
Usually when I reheat something from frozen I bake covered at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until warm in the middle.
That would be reheat not rehears(gotta love spell corrector 🙂 )
Seriously how unique is this? Incredible!! WOW
Actually, there are several recipes for Spasagna on Pinterest, so not really too unique. I found the version I use about a year and a half ago on here. They all seem pretty similar to me and Spasagna tastes pretty good.
I totally love this idea and have to try it!!
Wow. Mind Blown! I need to try this, I can’t understand why this recipe has not been in my life before now! Xx