Last Updated on 20th July 2022 by
If you’re like me and you love spaghetti, then you’re always looking for new ways to try it. Maybe you’re adding new seasonings to the pasta sauce you put on your spaghetti or putting new toppings on just to change up the flavor.
Let me share with you a spaghetti dish known as spaghetti pie that does something entirely different with this kind of pasta.
What Is Spaghetti Pie?
Usually, spaghetti is a pasta dish that’s served loose. You have all your noodles in a loose pile on your plate, and then you pour sauce and cheese on top of that. It can make a mess, and it’s easy for the spaghetti sauce to splatter everywhere as you pick up the noodles and maybe even slurp them sometimes.
Spaghetti pie is a much less messy way to eat this pasta. How do you make spaghetti pie? You’ll take a lot of the ingredients that go in a spaghetti ragu, including the ground beef, and make it into something akin to a casserole.
So, all the ingredients are solidified into a pie shape, and then the dish can be eaten in slices. There’s no mess, and you don’t have sauce running everywhere or noodles sticking out every which way.
It feels like a much more civilized and refined way to eat spaghetti, and it’s a great opportunity to do some fun things with the dish.
How to Make Spaghetti Pie
Let me show you how to cook spaghetti pie using a classic method. There are a lot of variations on this, and people will change up some of the ingredients to make their own version of spaghetti pie, but you could start off with this and see how it works for you.
I think you will really love how the spaghetti comes together as a casserole and makes for a neater dish.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of spaghetti
- Black pepper
- Salt
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
- 2 tablespoons of parsley
- 2 cups of marinara sauce
- 1 cup of shredded cheese (I prefer mozzarella)
- 1/2 cup and two tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
- Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. As the oven is heating, you can prepare the rest of your food.
- Prepare a cake pan by greasing it with cooking spray.
- Prepare a large pot of water with salt and heat on the stovetop until it reaches a boil. Then, add the spaghetti and cook for just a few minutes less than what the packaging recommends. Drain off the excess water and set the pasta to the side.
- Prepare the ground beef in a skillet by heating it on medium high heat. You don’t need to grease the skillet, as the beef will generate its own grease from its fat. Cook for about 5 to 8 minutes and then season with salt and pepper. Set the cooked beef on a plate with a paper towel lining to drain out the excess fat.
- Wipe down the skillet using a paper towel and then put your olive oil in there and cook on medium heat. Add in the onions once the oil is heated and sauté them for about four to five minutes, until they turn translucent.
- Next, mix together in a bowl the parsley, eggs, half a cup of parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, marinara sauce, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and a teaspoon of salt. Add the cooked spaghetti to your sauce, as well as the onions and beef. Stir everything together and put it into the prepared baking pan.
- Top the spaghetti mixture with your shredded cheese and the rest of the parmesan cheese and then bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow the baked spaghetti pie to rest for about 5 minutes, and then cut into pie wedges and serve.
How Long to Bake Spaghetti Pie
I recommend 25 to 30 minutes for baking a spaghetti pie, especially if you’re making it according to the directions I’ve given you. However, if you’re making a larger pie, it will need to cook for longer. A smaller pie won’t need to cook as long.
Keep in mind that all of your ingredients except the eggs are essentially cooked before you put them into the oven, so the pie doesn’t need to bake for long.
You don’t want to overcook the noodles, so cooking them al dente in the pot is important if you’re going to bake them in the oven in the spaghetti pie. This way, they don’t cook too much.
How to Make Spaghetti Pie with Leftover Spaghetti
If you have cooked up some spaghetti previously in the week, you don’t need to make fresh spaghetti for spaghetti pie. You can use that leftover spaghetti to make this dish.
The cook spaghetti doesn’t need to cook any further in order to make spaghetti pie. If it’s already cooked and doesn’t have any sauce or cheese on it, that makes it simple to put into spaghetti pie. You just treat it like already prepared spaghetti and add it into the recipe at the right time, according to the directions above.
If you mixed your spaghetti in with sauce and meat, you may be able to simply put those ingredients into the spaghetti pie together, adding them to the ricotta cheese and the eggs in the baking pan.
If you cooked your spaghetti fully, beyond al dente, when you prepared it for a different meal, then the spaghetti pie may not need to cook as long once it is in the oven.
Consider cooking the spaghetti pie for about 20 minutes, and then check it to see how it’s turned out. Taste a little bit of the spaghetti noodles and see if they are cooked adequately.
Now you have a different dish you can make with your leftover spaghetti instead of simply serving up traditional spaghetti again until everyone is tired of it.
I'm Pauline, a retired patisserie chef, mother of four and now a full time food blogger! When i'm not cooking i love long walks, reading thriller novels and spending time with my grandkids. Head to my about me page to learn more about the woman behind the food! You can find my Facebook here