Simple Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs

By: Shelly
Posted: Sep 23, 2024

This straightforward spaghetti and meatballs recipe is made in a skillet and baked to perfection! An up to date traditional dinner recipe for the entire household!

Spaghetti and Meatballs baked in a skillet topped with cheese and fresh parsley

Why You’ll Love This Simple Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe

Simple to prep and make! The steps to make this are tremendous straightforward and straight ahead. And I’ll present you all through the publish easy methods to prep steps forward to chop the overall time even additional at dinnertime!
A Basic! It is a assured household favourite, straightforward dinner recipe. Who doesn’t love spaghetti and meatballs?
Make It Forward Or Use Shortcuts! The wonderful thing about this recipe is it may be prepped upfront. You may make it a day forward and even weeks upfront and freeze it! I supply up some shortcut concepts for you as properly to make prep time straightforward on busy weeknights!

Baked Spaghetti topped with cheese, sauce and loaded with meatballs.

What You’ll Want To Make Spaghetti and Meatballs

That is a particularly straightforward dinner recipe with on a regular basis components that you’ll more than likely have the bulk in your kitchen proper now! As at all times ensure to scroll to the recipe card on the backside of this publish for the total ingredient record and directions!

Substances For the Meatballs

Breadcrumbs. I exploit unseasoned panko bread crumbs on this recipe however you’ll be able to completely common breadcrumbs in case you choose. I discover that panko aids in making the meatballs much less dense.
Meatloaf Combine. It is a floor mixture of meat yow will discover within the grocery store close to the bottom beef. It’s a mixture of floor beef, floor pork, and floor veal. I really like utilizing meatloaf combine in meatballs so as to add taste. You should utilize simply floor beef, or floor turkey or rooster instead in case you choose, however be aware the leaner the meat can lead to a drier meatball as a consequence of decrease fats content material. You possibly can even do a combo of lean floor beef and floor Italian sausage with out the veal for one more improbable taste combo!
Parmesan cheese. This is a vital ingredient within the meatballs to impart taste. Parmesan cheese is of course salty and flavorful! Freshly grate your individual Parmesan for these meatballs. The pre-grated or powdered cheese is coated in starches and cellulose to forestall sticking, but in addition doesn’t enable to optimum melting because the meatballs bake!
Moist Substances: Milk and an egg. These 2 components are necessary binding brokers within the meatballs in addition to including construction and stability.
Seasonings: Recent parsley, minced garlic, kosher salt, and black pepper. I really like utilizing finely chopped parsley in my meatballs so as to add a brightness and freshness. You’ll be able to completely use dried parsley flakes as properly if that’s what you may have in your pantry!

Substances For the Sauce

Marinara Sauce. The great thing about this recipe is that you should utilize a jar of sauce! I really like the manufacturers Rao’s or Carbone proper now, however there are such a lot of nice choices obtainable that you simply shouldn’t fear an excessive amount of about manufacturers!
Beef inventory or broth. This serves two purposed on this recipe. It deepens the flavour of the sauce a bit whereas additionally thinning it out ever so barely. That is necessary since you are boiling the spaghetti to al dente after which baking it within the sauce. The spaghetti will proceed to soak up extra liquid because it bakes so it will forestall your baked dish from getting dry and having the proper quantity of sauce!
Mozzarella. You’ll high spaghetti and meatballs with further cheese after you have prepped the dish within the skillet or casserole pan. You should utilize freshly grated mozzarella and even thinly sliced items of recent mozzarella!

Recipe At a Look

Be sure to learn the total recipe card on the backside of the publish for all the small print!

Meatball Ideas:

Use a cookie scoop to portion out the meatballs so they’re all the very same dimension!
Don’t pack your meatballs tremendous tightly. You need them to carry collectively when baking, however in case you pack them tightly you’ll find yourself with a really agency, dense meatball as a substitute of a delicate, tender one!

Prep the Pasta

Boil the pasta al dente in accordance with the bundle instructions after which drain it properly. Add the pasta proper again into the pot and toss with the sauce and broth. The warmth from the pot will heat the sauce a bit. Because you’re baking this dish the sauce doesn’t must be sizzling!

Assembling baked spaghetti topped with sauce and meatballs in a skillet.

Assemble

Add the coated pasta right into a deep skillet or casserole dish and sprinkle with grated mozzarella. Nestle the meatballs into the noodles evenly all through and bake!

Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe Shortcuts

Make your meatballs a day upfront!
Premade meatballs. For those who don’t wish to make your individual meatballs, use premade meatballs! You should utilize frozen meatballs, however I might thaw them out to make use of on this recipe. It is a time saver in case you’re in a time crunch!
Prep your pasta and coat it within the sauce forward of time. You are able to do this just a few hours forward or perhaps a day upfront. For those who select to do that a day upfront use an additional cup of sauce, because the noodles will soak up the pasta because it sits within the fridge.

A spoon serving a scoop of spaghetti and meatballs

Make These Spaghetti and Meatballs Forward

Prep the recipe in accordance with the instructions. Use an additional cup of marinara sauce and 1/4 cup extra broth with the pasta to account for the pasta absorbing the liquid and drying out.
Cowl and refrigerate or freeze till you’re able to cook dinner!
To Bake From Refrigerated: Cowl with foil and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 10 minutes, or till heated by way of.
To Bake From Frozen: Cowl with foil and bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Take away the foil and bake for a further 10 minutes, or till heated by way of.

How To Jazz Up Spaghetti Sauce?

Since you’re beginning with a jar of premade spaghetti sauce of your selecting you don’t must do the rest! BUT in case you prefer to make issues a little bit extra attention-grabbing listed below are some methods to reinforce jarred sauce:

Spices. The sky is the restrict right here with what you’ll be able to add! Recent basil, crushed purple pepper flakes, oregano, and garlic powder are a straightforward kick begin to amping up the flavour of the sauce!
Caramelized Onions. It is a trick I exploit lots with sauce. Cube up a yellow onion and cook dinner the onions with a little bit of olive oil till they’re golden. Add the sauce proper into the pan and cook dinner them collectively for about 10 minutes to infuse the flavour!
Garlic. I imply this goes with out saying, proper? You’ll be able to mince up recent cloves of garlic and stir that proper into the sauce for an enormous pop of garlic. Or simply add garlic powder with the opposite spices like I discussed above!
Heavy cream. What’s higher than a creamy tomato sauce? A simple means to do that is warmth your sauce on the range high and add in just a few tablespoons or as much as 1/2 cup of heavy cream relying on how creamy you prefer it! You too can add in 4- ounces of cream cheese proper into the sauce and cook dinner it till it’s melted and clean. Cream cheese provides a silky richness that’s scrumptious!

Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs in a cast iron skillet

What To Serve with Spaghetti and Meatballs

My Stuffed Garlic Bread is the proper aspect dish for pasta!
In fact a inexperienced salad or Caesar salad could be good with this recipe.
Roasted inexperienced beans are one other nice choice to serve with spaghetti and meatballs!

Storage

Retailer the hermetic within the fridge for as much as 3 days.

Extra Household Favourite Pasta Recipes

Description

This straightforward spaghetti and meatballs recipe is made in a skillet and baked to perfection! An up to date traditional dinner recipe for the entire household!

1 pound meatloaf combine (beef, pork, veal) *see be aware
1/2 cup unseasoned panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup recent grated parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 cup milk
1 giant egg
1/4 cup chopped recent parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
8– ounces skinny spaghetti
1 (24- ounce) jar marinara sauce
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 cup grated mozzarella or thinly sliced rounds of recent mozzarella
Elective garnish – chopped recent parsley and or chopped recent basil

Warmth oven to 350°F. Evenly coat a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray, put aside.
In a big bowl mix the breadcrumbs, meat, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, milk, egg, chopped parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. Kind the combination into 12 equally-sized meatballs.
Place the meatballs onto the ready baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.
Boil the spaghetti al dente in accordance with the bundle instructions. Drain and return the spaghetti to the pot.
Add within the marinara sauce and broth into the pasta and toss to coat.
Switch the spaghetti to an oven-safe deep dish skillet or baking dish. Sprinkle the spaghetti with the mozzarella. Nestle the meatballs into the spaghetti. Place the skillet again into the oven and bake for 10 minutes, or till the cheese is melted.
Take away the skillet from the oven, garnish with the remaining Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley or basil if desired.
Serve instantly.

Notes

*You should utilize floor beef and even floor turkey or rooster instead of the meatloaf combine. The leaner the meat you employ can lead to a drier meatball. Don’t use any leaner than 93/7

Retailer hermetic within the fridge for as much as 3 days.