Baked Spasagna - lasagna and spaghetti in one! Baked pasta with mozzarella, ricotta, sour cream, half-and-half and parmesan. Topped with a quick meat sauce. SOOO good! Makes a great freezer meal too. Perfect for a potluck!
Ingredients:
24-ozspaghetti
4(8-oz)packages shredded mozzarella cheese (yes - 2 lb of cheese)
Cook spaghetti according to package directions, drain.
In a large bowl, stir together sour cream, ricotta, half-and-half, mozzarella, oregano, basil, pepper, garlic, salt, and half the Parmesan cheese. Add spaghetti and toss until well coated.
Pour spaghetti mixture into 9x13 pan lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Top spaghetti with remaining Parmesan cheese.
Cover dish aluminum foil and bake 30 minutes.
While pasta is baking, prepare meat sauce. Brown Italian sausage in skillet. Drain and return to skillet. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
Remove pasta from the oven. Cut into squares and top with meat sauce. Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan cheese.
Notes:
Can use Italian sausage, breakfast sausage, ground beef, or ground turkey in this recipe.I used 2 pounds of shredded mozzarella cheese. Feel free to use an Italian cheese blend or provolone.You can make the casserole ahead of time and refrigerate. You may need to add a few minutes to the cooking time if baking straight from the refrigerator.You can assemble the casserole and freeze for later.To bake casserole after freezing, thaw completely and bake as directed below.You can make half of the recipe and bake it in a 9-inch baking dish. The cooking time would stay the same.This makes a lot of pasta. I sometimes divide the recipe into two pans and bake one and freeze one for later.I used a jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce. My favorite brands are Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Marinara (green label), Rao's, or La Famiglia DelGrosso sauce.If you don't like ricotta, you can try substituting cottage cheese.