Baked meatball & spaghetti

You will find this meatball recipe is a bit different than my others, or his! Not near as many breadcrumbs because I wanted them pretty sturdy to keep that cheese in! I have seen spaghetti pie, just never ate it, or made it. It is traditionally made in a round pie pan, but this made to much for that, so shall we call it spaghetti bars? 🙂

I gave you the ingredients for each part, instead of all together and dividing them. Make sure to go down the entire recipe for what you will need. This freezes beautifully, it can be made a day or 2 in advance, and it gets better the longer you reheat leftovers, just like real spaghetti, in my opinion!

I used jarred sauce. Don’t even make that “face”, sometimes, I do it, I own it, and I do it proudly! If you have homemade, or want to make your own for this, go ahead. I just felt like the meatballs were the star, so the sauce wasn’t going to get all my time and effort!

You will need:

Meatballs
2lbs ground beef
1lb ground pork
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I use fresh)
1tsp dried parsley
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion salt
2-3 T Italian dried seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 lb chunk of mozzarella cheese (cubed, you will use some to stuff meatballs and some to spread out over the sauce below them)

Instructions

Combine ALL ingredients EXCEPT mozz cheese, and roll into 24 meatballs. They will be big! When you roll a meatball, stick a small cube of mozz in the center and completely seal it back up. If you do not take time to make sure they are sealed, the cheese WILL leak out and the fun stops there. HA! I used a little water on my hands to make sure they were sealed good! In a skillet with olive or vegetable oil, brown the meatballs on all sides.

It is important to brown them to seal the cheese in. You aren’t cooking them all the way through here, just browning them. When you are done set them aside.

For everything else you will need:

1 lb spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine. *no angel hair or thin spaghetti*
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 jar of your favorite or homemade marinara
1 regular size can of diced tomatoes.
1 16 ounce package of grated mozzarella cheese

Preheat your oven to 375. Boil your pasta for the lowest cooking time recommended. Drain. Run under cold water, to cool it quickly. In a bowl with a clean hand, mix together the pasta, egg, and grated Parmesan cheese.

Lay it in the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan. It will act as your “crust”. Lay the rest of your leftover mozzarella on top of the pasta. You can see I just pulled pieces apart with mine but if you cube it all just lay them over.

Now in the same or a clean bowl mix together your marinara sauce and diced tomatoes. I gussied mine up a bit, but when you are ready, pour it over the top of the pasta evenly.

Place on a baking sheet to catch any potential drips, bake for 30-45 minutes.

Remove, and sprinkle cheese on top, bake for another 15-25 minutes, until cheese is melted and meatballs are cooked all the way through. Make sure to check your meatballs!! When it is done, let it sit for 15 minutes before serving. It will cut just like a cake, because of the egg in your pasta. Perfect pieces!