Making a great Bolognese Sauce is simple, but time consuming, so most home cooks double or even triple their batch size and freeze the leftovers. Sooner or later you will be digging through the freezer trying to come up a meal idea and think to yourself, "I really need to use this sauce, but regular old spaghetti seems a bit bland." Suddenly the idea of a casserole comes to mind and all your leftover worries will be resolved. Today's recipe, Spectacular Spaghetti Casserole, takes a traditional spaghetti with Bolognese sauce and bakes it in casserole form almost similar to a lasagna, with layers of different textures and flavors! It's a great excuse to make a new batch of sauce or clear out older leftovers while bringing something new and different to the dinner table. This one requires quite a few steps so start thinking about what frozen leftovers you have in your freezer as I walk you through this delicious weekday dinner idea...Let's Get Cooking!
We will begin with the Bolognese sauce. You can find my standard recipe here at Spaghetti Bolognese, but I will walk you through the process again. The amounts in the recipe card below will make 2-3x what is needed for this recipe. I actually made this as regular spaghetti a few months prior and used the sauce leftovers for this recipe. You can certainly make half or 1/4 of the sauce recipe if you don't want leftovers, but they do freeze well and save you that 1-2 hours in the future.
Prep work is pretty simple. Dice your bell peppers and onions into 1/2 inch squares. Sauté/sweat the bell peppers in a pan over medium heat with olive oil/salt for 3-4 minutes. Add onions and continue to sauté/sweat for an additional 2 minutes. Just as the onion begins to become translucent, add 2 Tbsp of minced garlic and sauté for 1 additional minute. When the garlic is fragrant, remove the pan from heat and set aside for now.
In a separate large stockpot, add the tomato puree, crushed tomatoes, sautéed veggies, 4 Tbsp of the Italian Seasoning, and 2 more Tbsp of minced garlic. Set the heat to Simmer/Low and cover to prevent splashing.
While the sauce heats up and starts to build layers of flavor, brown the ground beef in a pan over medium-medium high heat. Be sure to season with Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and 2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning. When the beef is about 3/4 done, add 2 Tbsp minced garlic and cook until completely done. Drain any excess grease or fat.
Combine the cooked ground beef with the sauce mixture. Add Grated Parmesan Cheese, 2 Tbsp Olive Oil, and salt/pepper to taste. Stir and continue to simmer for an additional 60-90 minutes.
Now that the sauce is complete, or while it finishes simmering, we can move on to the actual casserole. Boil your spaghetti noodles in heavily salted water for 8-9 minutes until al dente. Since we will baking them shortly, you definitely don't want to start with overcooked noodles. Once cooked, immediately drain the noodles and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.
Combine the ricotta and cream cheese in a bowl and stir until well mixed. Add some granulated garlic to season and stir until it is evenly dispersed throughout. You can choose to either let the cream cheese gradually warm up to room temperature or microwave it a few seconds at a time to make this step easier. Once it is decently softened, the ricotta will mix with it quite easily.
Once your sauce is finished simmering, combine about 6 cups with the cooked and rinsed noodles. You will want them to be meaty and plenty sauced to prevent the casserole from drying out during the baking process.
Spray a 9x13 casserole pan with nonstick spray. Take about half the noodles and sauce and evenly spread it across the bottom of the dish.
Now comes the most difficult part of this recipe. Use a large spoon or spatula to evenly spread the ricotta and cream cheese mixture across the noodles. It will likely test your patience somewhat, but take your time and eventually the cheese mixture will spread without the noodles shifting beneath.
Top the cheese mixture with the remaining noodles and sauce. This third layer should just about fill your casserole dish to the top. This would be a good time to turn on your oven and preheat it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Look like this casserole is starting to really take shape, eh? We are not quite done yet, though! Top the casserole with shredded mozzarella cheese. This will make for a wicked delicious topping once melted and browned.
Once your casserole is ready and oven preheated, slide it into the oven, uncovered, and bake for 30-45 minutes. Begin checking on it after 30 minutes to see if the mozzarella cheese has melted and begun to brown. Every oven is a bit different so this cooking time range should just about cover everyone. All the casserole components are already cooked so it's just a matter of heating everything up and finishing that nice top layer of melted cheese!
Pull it from the oven when done and let it cool a few minutes before cutting into the casserole. Since the noodles are a tangled mess beneath the top melted cheese layer, use a knife to cut and portion out individual servings. Then you can use a regular spatula to scoop them out and plate. Like most Italian dishes, parsley makes a great accompanying garnish for taste and looks!
Did we knock this one out of the park or what? Whether you use leftover sauce and noodles or make it from scratch, this Spectacular Spaghetti Casserole is a great way to enjoy a classic dish with a modern twist! Of course, it leaves plenty of opportunity for substitutions and additional ingredients. You could certainly add sausage, cottage cheese, and any other typical lasagna-type things to fortify this base recipe. Make a batch for yourself and family and let us know how it turned out. It really doesn't get much more simple than this to create a full dinner of 8 portions. No matter how you decide to make your Spectacular Spaghetti Casserole, get in the kitchen and try something new....Just Keep Cooking!
SPECTACULAR SPAGHETTI CASSEROLE
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