Spaghetti & Meatballs is a perfect family friendly meal. Baked Spaghetti & Meatballs is cooked in one pan, topped with lots of cheese, and baked until hot, bubbly, and melted ooey gooey! Baked Spaghetti & Meatballs takes regular Spaghetti and Meatballs from ordinary to extra-ordinary!
Are your afternoons busy getting kids to soccer practice or other sport or lesson? This Baked Spaghetti and Meatball dinner is perfect for those busy afternoons. Make the dish early in the day, and when you get home, simply pop it in a hot oven and bake for 30-ish minutes while you’re putting together a quick salad. Voila, a hot, satisfying, comfort food meal is on the table.
I’ve been staying in our little home away from home condo for the last few weeks, and have loved every minute of getting to see our oldest daughter and her family every day! But alas, all good things, must come to an end. A couple nights before heading home, our grandson, got to have one more sleepover with Nana and Papa. Since we’d be packing up and leaving in a couple of days, I figured I needed to use of some of the food that I had in the condo. Spaghetti noodles √ Pasta sauce √ Homemade meatballs in the freezer √ Cheese √ It seemed I had the perfect ingredients for this Baked Spaghetti & MeatballsA quick trip to the store for one last quart of milk, a loaf of rustic bread, and a bag salad (I know, I know, but I didn’t want leftover produce), and I had everything needed to put a quick and easy dinner on the table that we’d all enjoy! 
I recommend serving this Baked Spaghetti & Meatballs with Caesar Salad and some rustic french bread.
Please feel free to share this recipe on your FaceBook with all your spaghetti loving friends and don’t forget to Pin it!
Baked Spaghetti & Meatballs
Ingredients
- Meatballs I used about 1 1/2 doz homemade meatballs **Meatballs were fully cooked
- 24 oz jar marinara sauce Homemade or use your favorite jarred sauce
- 1/2 yellow onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 3/4 lb. spaghetti noodles
- 1-2 cups grated cheese I used half colby-jack, half mozzarella
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
Instructions
- In large (10-12") cast iron skillet, sauté onions in olive oil over med/low heat. Add in garlic and continue sautéing until onions are tender.
- Add cooked meatballs.
- Add marinara sauce and Italian seasoning.
- Heat over med/low heat for about 20 minutes.
- In separate large pot, cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions (*under cook by 2 minutes).
- With large slotted spoon, scoop meatballs from sauce and set aside.
- Scoop cooked spaghetti (with large slotted spoon) into marinara sauce. Add in about 1/2 cup pasta cooking water. Gently stir until pasta is fully coated with sauce.
- Add cooked meatballs to top of spaghetti.
- Top with grated cheese & parmesan cheese.
- Bake at 350* for approx 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly and cheese is melted.
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I love this! What a great idea. Thanks, Renee!
The recipe calls for a “large cast iron skillet”. How large is “Large”? 10″? 12″?
I was thinking same….I have 10″ and probably not large enough.
I just made it right now. And i used a 10″ chicken fryer beacuse its deeper. Its to much for a regular skillet. 🙁 But maybe a 12″ or 14″
Do ypu mean an Electric Skillet ?? Covered ??? Thank you. Sounds like a great idea. How long did u cook it for in your chicken fryer ??
A chicken fryer is just a name for a large, deep, cast iron skillet.
A chicken fryer is a deep cast iron frying pan
How many servings does one recipe make?
I guess that depends on if you’re feeding lots of small children, or grown adults. It’s made with almost a pound of spaghetti, plus lots of meatballs. I’d say it make enough to feed a hungry family of 6!
Brobdignangia!
Do you have nutrition facts for this dish ? It looks great .
My old 10″ worked fine, tonight. It all fits (don’t need 12″), cleans up easy, and I’m a kitchen hero now. Just cooking for 2, so we’ll get 2 more meals out of this one. Nice!
Yes! 10″ pan for the win!
Thank you! Mine is a 10″ as well!
Is your 10″a new or old school cast pan. I ask because my Dad’s is 1 3/4 deep but Nan’s 10″ 3 1/2 deep. New to cooking. Daddy helps but let’s me make mistakes and I think he would like this for a surprise that he did not have to do anything….
I thought you can’t cook acidic food in cast iron. What about the marinara sauce?
I find that if you cook tomato based sauces in cast iron the sauce tends to darken from red to brown. Other than that, they taste fine. You’ll get more iron in your food but I doubt you’ll notice the difference on something so flavorful as reduced pasta sauce.
You are correct that with repeated use of high acid foods, it will harm the seasoning you have built up. However, as long as your cast iron is properly seasoned, the OCCASUAL use of a high acid food, such as the marinara sauce in this recipe, will not hurt it. Just be sure to clean and oil it well before putting it away for the next use. Again the key word on this is OCASSIONAL use.
What if you don’t have a cast iron skillet?
Mike,
How do you season your
Cast iron skillet?
My oil always gets sticky
Before I use again.
If your skillet is seasoned, a little tomato sauce won’t hurt it.
You aren’t supposed to but I have cooked tomatoes in with peppers and onions. I just wash my cast iron immediately after cooking. I assume this can be done in a large casserole or baking dish too. I think the idea was a one dish cleanup and the cast iron is easy to bake in. Never let anything with acid sit very long in cast iron. You should not cook any tomato products in aluminum either. The tomato leaches the aluminum into the food.
I have used cast iron all my life. Things get a little darker, but that’s it. It is so much more healthy for you to cook in cast iron.
No way I’ve done it for years now problem. The biggest problem with cast iron is letting them air dry after cleaning that’s a no no rust will take over you got to keep it season that’s it.
My mom always put hers in a hot oven to dry. She heated it up and then turned it off, she put the cast iron skillet in the oven and just left it there to dry.
Cant wait to try this.n BTW you can dry your cast iron skillet on the stove top. Then I oil it before storing it
Not really..
Not really..
Cooking Tomatoes in a cast iron skillet helps bring out the iron in your food. Its great for iron deficiency anemia. My doctor told me about this.
Yes I a eat marinara sauce , I usual put sugar in it, to get rid of the acid in it ,
Try using a carrot instead of sugar👍🏼
My family loves baked spaghetti! I usually make it from left over “regular ” spaghetti … I use a loaf pan to bake it in. You could use any casserole dish if you’re concerned about your cast iron skillet. I’ve used my cast iron for so many things, practically everything .. .and they’re holding up great! (Handed down from my grandma, too)
I will be using this recipe as inspiration 0 love the meatballs on top of the spaghetti!
I haven’t heard of baked spaghetti before but I’m a big pasta fan and this looks delicious! Can’t wait to try it.
It looks so delicious. I have never made baked pasta and would love to try this recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Strange to see spaghetti combined with bread and a salad haha! Over here we eat spaghetti as a full meal :).
The kids absolutely love this!
Really?? Have you ever been to an Italian restaurant, that’s what’s served with all pasta dishes, salad and bread! ????
I’ve been in Italy but still I’m amazed haha
WE Italians use the bread to dip the bread in the saice on our plates also wipe of the diah of any sauce. And the salad is eaten at the end od the meal. Pur grandparents use to tell us it was to help digest our food.
I love dipping the bread in the sauce! As for the salad at the end of the meal, I prefer mine with the meal, but by all means carry on your grandparents traditions!
Right!! 😍
A lot of interesting tidbits on this page. I never knew about the acid and cast iron. I did know about keeping the skillet greased when you are finished with it. To keep it from rusting. I always used crisco to keep the rust at bay.
This was good, but it took the seasoned layer off of my cast iron skillet. I’m thinking I’ll stick to a 9×13 glass baking dish and get the same taste. And I won’t need to re-season my skillet…
I’m so sorry you had a problem with your cast iron. I’ve made this numerous times and have never had a problem. Fortunately, you were able to re-season your pan and can continue to make this recipe in a glass baking dish.
Renee, I need to make this dish for a heart patient. That means turkey meatballs and no cheese. Because the turkey is drier and I need to leave the cheese off, would a foil cover for the heating time and then a couple of minutes under the broiler yield a good result?
I make turkey meatballs all the time. You might want to check out my Whole 30 recipe (they’re delicious) and see if those will work for you. In my opinion, if you’re needing to leave out the cheese (which is a huge part of this recipe), I’d just bring her spaghetti w/turkey meatballs.
Uhm it might be a silly question but the amount of spaghetti noodles is 3/4# what is that supposed to mean? I’m aware that the amaount of noodles used varies on how many are supposed to eat from it and your own preferences. But I’m from germaany and I just wondered about it. I’m just curious like that. So if someone will answer this for me I’ll be delighted. Other than that I think it’s a cool recipe and I’ll sure try it out very soon.
3/4# is short for 3/4 of a POUND, or 12oz. Hope this helps. I’m think back to my relative carefully converting all her German measurements to American for special recipes, but with this type of recipe, I don’t think you have to be exact.
that helps, I was just currious about the way it was written down. I always use english or american recipes and hardly have any problems. just never before saw 3/4# thank you for clearing that up for me.
Mary I would just LOVE some German recipes…..thank you
3/4 # means 3 to 4 pounds. The symbol # means pounds……….
To clarify, when I said 3/4#, I meant three fourths of a pound (not 3 to 4 pounds).
No! Not 3-4 pounds! It’s a fraction 3/4 is three fourths of a pound or 12 ounces!
You all do realize that the question has already been answered more than adequately by the recipes author and my confusion about that way of writing it down has been cleared up weeks ago.
I thank you all for trying but you don’t need to bother anymore.
Many thanks and greetings from germany
pretty harsh, but why reply after all? You got your answer…
It means three fourths of a pound..
Not 3-4 pounds of spaghetti, it is 3/4 of a pound!!!
You are a complet idiot. Stay away from sharp knives and firearms.
The # symbol stands for pounds . In this case it’s 3/4 lb.
Only in USA.
The rest of the world calls it ‘Hash’
It was called a pound sign long before hash tag was a thing. How to tell you were a 2000s baby.
I just wanted to answer in 2019, because I hope you’re still wondering and haven’t been able to make baked spaghetti yet despite having several responses… it makes me feel more relevant. It means 3/4 pound.
Wondering if you can freeze this. With just 2 of us, there is a lot leftover.
It should freeze without any problem since frozen spaghetti meals are sold in the grocery. Made it last night for my grandson and he loved it. Made again tonight for my husband and I and it was delicious. We will be freezing part of it and sharing the rest with our daughter.
Absolutely! Or invite company for dinner, then enjoy the leftovers for lunch the next day 🙂
What is the best way to reheat this the next day
Susan, I would suggest one of two ways. I’d place the leftovers into a microwave/oven proof dish and either use the microwave to reheat or add a little liquid (more pasta sauce or a little water) to prevent pasta from drying out and cover and heat in oven. Enjoy 🙂
You can cut the recipe down. For half of the recipe just divide recipe by 2. For a forth of a recipe I divide in half and then half again. Freezing is ok as well. Make sure it is cooled down before you freeze it.
How many servings would this make? That would give me an idea if it would feed my family or if I would need to double it first. Thank you.
8 easily, unless your family eats less or more. Each serving is large enough for a normal serving. I made a salad with mine and some garlic knots. It was delicious.
Thank you Gloria for responding before I got to it. Yes, you should be able to feed 6-8 quite easily, especially if you’re also serving a salad and bread.
This would lso work brat in a copper chef pan, which we have had for two weeks and it can go from stove top to oven..we love ours and I will adapt this recipie to our pan….can’t wait to try it
The meatballs in this dish….are they pre-cooked or browned first, or do they just cook through in the baking process?
I wondered the same thing!
would love to know the same thing
Yes, the meatballs were fully cooked prior to adding to this recipe. I’ve edited the recipe card 🙂
Have you or anyone ever tried his using squash as noodles instead of pasta?
Hi Kate, No, I’ve never substituted the pasta for veggie noodles in this recipe. It’s sounds delicious though and I don’t see any reason that it shouldn’t work out. Please let me know if you give it try.
i’m gonna make this today…thanks renee
Can I make this ahead of time, refrigerate, then make in the evening?
This looks absolutely incredible! I can’t wait to try this one out on my Italian hubby!
I have a silly question, but I don’t understand step 7. What do you mean by adding cooking water? Is that the water from the noodles? I need help!! Thanks!
That’s exactly it. Since you’ll be baking this after assembling it, you’ll want a little extra liquid to prevent it from drying out. About 1/2 cup of the pasta water does the trick (or of course, you can just use more sauce if you prefer).
Can you make this ahead of time, like the night before so I can just pop it in the oven when I get home from work?
Absolutely!
I make this a lot! We are pasta lovers of any kind! It’s a perfect dinner or lunch!! Love it!!
Thank you 🙂 I think it’s great anytime also.
Why cooking so long? If the meatballs are pre-cooked and so is the spaghetti, why 20-30 at 350? Just curious!
If you think yours is hot enough and the cheese is well melted, by all means take it out a few minutes earlier (I posted 20-30 just to make sure it was bubbly hot and the cheese was fully melted).
Plus if you bake long enough it gets somewhat crispy on the bottom which for me makes it extra delicious.
This looks amazing!!!
Found this recipe to be easy to make, including making the meatballs! Had it with a salad and fresh Italian bread! Having it again tonight. Thanks for sharing this recipe, Renee. F.Y.I. Renee, you have the same name as my sister!
Can you make this the night before?
Hello! I was wondering if I can use frozen meatballs for this? If so, should I heat them up first or stick them right in? Can’t wait to make this for dinner tomorrow night (:
Absolutely, frozen meatballs will work fine. Since they’re precooked, you just need to make sure that they’re completely heated through to serve.
Thanks for sharing your recipe, will be making this one, sounds great!
Has anyone made this recipe with gluten free noodles?
I would like to take this for a pot luck what size baking dish would it fill does anyone know?
Would it be good with Italian sausage precooked and added instead of meatballs?
Okay, now I’m hungry! Thanks for sharing!
I’d like to make this fir a large party of about 15. Should I just make 2 pans 9×13 or combine the recipe by 2 and use a large aluminum pan ?
I made it in a regular non-stick pan transferred to bake dish and it turned out great!!!
That cheese on top is making me drool. This is the perfect meal for my two young swimmers… especially on the night before a meet! They thank you in advance 🙂
My family enjoyed this. Very good!!!
Covered or not covered? Making in a disposable aluminum pan.. Four stars since I haven’t made it yet. Thanks
Looks great Renee, I will try this one in the near future. My real reason for commenting though is to express amazement at some of the questions that are posted. “Why cook for X time”, “if I double the recipe what pan should I use, or two pans”? Come on people, recipes are really just recommendations, you need to use some common sense! If you need twice as much, double the recipe! And if that means you need to use two pans, do it… or if you have one pan large enough for the double recipe, then do it in one pan. Do you really think that the pan size will change the recipe that much? I wouldn’t put it in a roasting pan, or a cake pan, but you know what? Even if you did, it would probably still taste fine. I just don’t get some of the comments that people take the time to post (including this one that I posted, but I just felt like I had to). When I read comments, I really just want to hear how the recipe turned out for you, what you changed to make it better (or maybe made it worse?), what you substituted for meatballs since you didn’t have any on hand (yes I’m sure sausage would taste great also, but you know what – just try it and see)! Cooking is an adventure – it’s not always going to turn out great when you change a recipe, but you’ll never know unless you try. Maybe you’ll end up creating the next great recipe by experimenting, wouldn’t that be fun?
took the words right out of my mouth, mike! really…does no one have any common sense anymore?
Ditto Mike O – a common sense or clarification question – such as the meaning of # in 3/4#, which may not translate to all languages, helps all of us. I believe the U.S, and one other holdout are the only countries not on the metric system, our loss. Another pet peeve of mine is when people change the recipe so much that the rating they give is not an accurate reflection of the original recipe. I, like you, read the comments to see how people like the original, not how they completely reworked it. Make the original then rate and comment; this is when you say what you might want to change.
Made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious!!
I was wondering if I could cook it at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time cause I have something else that needs to be baked at the same time at 400 degrees. What do you think?
Absolutely! Everything is already cooked, so you’re basically just re-heating and getting the cheese all ooey-gooey!!
Yum! Renee, this looks perfect for today’s snow in Minneapolis!
I have tried this baked spaghetti….and I love it!
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We LOVED it, making it again. Thank you
Quick question for you, if I use frozen cooked meatballs do I need to cook them prior to baking the dish? TIA!
We loved this recipe. I used a 10” cast iron. We’ll definitely get two meals out of recipe. I can’t wait to make it for my grandson, who loves special spaghetti. Served it with a Cesar salad.
Thanks a lot for sharing this with all people you actually understand
what you’re speaking about! Bookmarked. Please also visit my website =).
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First of all, I’m not a spaghetti fan at all, but I loved this dish and so did my wife! Thank you so much for sharing. I made it according to the recipe and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
I made this tonight after work, and it was easy, quick (compared to many other dishes) and inexpensive. I wanted to eat another plate, but was stuffed! Boyfriend loved it too! Thanks for the AMAZING recipe can’t wait to make it again!
Haven’t tried this but going to try it soon, seems like a perfect, cold meal. Im experimenting with my cast iron skillets this winter. Could I use a white sauce instead? I have a tomato allergy.
Thank you
This was a hit with the family!! We are definitely adding this to our family favorites recipe book! Thank you!!
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What if I don’t have a cast iron skillet? Could I make it a normal pan and then transfer to a baking dish to bake in oven?
I’ve made this several times and making it again tonight. I didn’t change a thing and made my own meatballs although I have used frozen when I was in a hurry. A great recipe and so delicious. The recipe has quite a few steps so make sure you are organized 🙂
When camping in the 60’s and 70’s, I used to make skillet spaghetti like this over a campfire. easy cleanup and just season the pan after you clean it.
This Baked Spaghetti & Meatballs is delicious! Rich & wonderful! Much easier than another recipe I’ve made. Thank you!
I ketoed this recipe. I simply substituted keto friendly baked spaghetti squash for the spaghetti noodles.I followed the rest of the directions, using my own tomato sauce and frozen meatballs. Bam! It turned out amazing…..fit for a King. It looks just like the picture. This recipe is a keeper and I can hardly wait for the leftovers today. Thank you!
This looks yummy. But I don’t have a cast iron skillet. What else could I use? Thanks.
Can this be made in crockpot for how many hours
Thanks
I’m sorry I don’t have a crock pot version of this recipe.
Does it have to be made in a cast iron skillet ? Can it be made in a Pyrex dish ?
This recipe was fantastic! I will definitely be making this again
Sounds good – I’m saving this one. Will use whole wheat pasta and Raos sauce with meat added (instead of meatballs). Will make day before, chill in fridge and eat the next day. 🙂
We love this. My husband said that this is the best recipe that we have discovered on Pinterest! Thank you for posting it!! Easy to make!!!!!
My daughter does not like a lot of red sauce can I substitute a white sauce instead?
Thanks for sharing this Baked Spaghetti Meatballs Recipe, this one is so amazing. We tried it for the very first time and everyone loved it in my family.
Thought you should know that I’ve had this recipe pinned for years and finally made it recently. Loved it so much that I sent pictures and the recipe to my sister in law. She loved it so much she told my parents and by brother made it for his crew while he was offshore working and they loved it. And I’m making it for family this weekend. It’s been a hit, even 7 years after you posted it, so thank you!!! 🙂
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