Million Dollar Spaghetti – A Simple Delicious Recipe

Million Dollar Spaghetti features all the classic flavors of spaghetti, only it’s creamier and just as simply delicious.

We’re all familiar with the regular Classic Spaghetti, I believe.

This recipe takes it to another level with several more fun ingredients in addition to the usual spaghetti ingredients!

Needing inspiration? Supper tonight could be a large pot of Million Dollar Spaghetti, sure to please the whole family. (Even picky family members!)

Today’s the day.

I need to take a meal down the road to a friend’s house since I promised I would on this day.

And what on earth shall I make to take?

Something simple to make and easy for my friend to heat, yet a delicious comfort food…

I know! Spaghetti! Not just any old spaghetti, but Million Dollar Spaghetti.

To accompany my spaghetti I will make a salad and Eclair Dessert. 

Sounds great to me and I’ve got all the ingredients so let’s get started!

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Supplies we used

• Large skillet – to cook and brown the ground beef, and also to mix the spaghetti sauce together! 
• Saucepan – to cook the pasta.
• Colander or strainer – to drain the grease from the ground beef and water from the pasta.
• Wooden utensils – these work great with non-stick pans and we use them all the time while cooking in our kitchen!
• Measuring cups and spoons – to measure the ingredients, of course.
• Grater – to shred the cheese 
• Glass baking dish – finish the spaghetti by baking until thoroughly heated!

We linked our favorites or something similar.

Eleven Basic Ingredients

Ground beef – your favorite kind of ground beef

Spaghetti pasta – we like to use the angel hair spaghetti

Butter – salted butter

Cream cheese spread – unflavored cream cheese spread 

Sour cream – regular sour cream

Cottage cheese – small curd cottage cheese

Spaghetti Sauce – your favorite kind of spaghetti sauce

Salt – we used common iodized table salt

Pepper – freshly ground black pepper adds a nice touch

Mozzarella cheese – freshly grated mozzarella cheese

Pepperoni – sliced pepperoni adds a fun garnish on top!

Find the full recipe on the recipe card below!

How to make Million Dollar Spaghetti

First thing, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet, cook and brown the ground beef. Once it’s browned to your liking, dump into a colander or strainer to drain off the excess grease.

While the ground beef is cooking and browning, cook the pasta until al dente (according to package directions), then drain off the pasta water.

In the same skillet you used to brown the ground beef, mix the butter, cottage cheese, sour cream, cream cheese spread, spaghetti sauce, salt, and pepper together to create the pasta sauce.

Add the cooked spaghetti pasta and ground beef to the skillet with the savory pasta sauce mixture and stir.

If your skillet is oven safe leave the spaghetti in the skillet; if not, transfer to a greased baking dish. Shred the mozzarella cheese and spread in an even layer on top of the spaghetti, then add a layer of pepperoni, if you wish.

Bake the spaghetti at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until thoroughly heated through.

Serve and enjoy!

Notes

The bake time may vary depending on your oven, and how thoroughly heated the spaghetti was before baking. 

Our Million Dollar Spaghetti doesn’t necessarily need to be baked; you can place a lid on top of the skillet and let it simmer until it’s completely heated through and the cheese layer is melted.

Store the leftovers (if there are any!) in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Customize your Million Dollar Spaghetti

We don’t recommend skipping any of the ingredients, but there are a few swaps you can make if you’re in a pinch. For example, ground pork of sausage, ground chicken or even ground turkey could be a good substitute for ground beef. (Though ground beef is best, in our opinion!) Cook the ground meat with a diced onion or bell pepper for more flavor and texture!

Different types of pasta are fine to use if you don’t have spaghetti noodles.

Regular softened cream cheese works just fine in place of the cream cheese spread.

And of course you can always play around with adding different kinds of cheese such as parmesan cheese or cheddar cheese; either of these are a great addition to the mozzarella cheese layer.

Inspire your friends

Have you made our Million Dollar Spaghetti Recipe?

If so, leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

As always…

Thanks for visiting our small town, where we make food and things from scratch. Feel free to stay awhile and explore!

’til next time,

Julie