Growing up, when my mom made spagetti sauce she would always add meat, garlic and onions. So I thought everyone always added meat and garlic, onions, and whatever other yummy vegetables were in the fridge -celery, mushrooms, peppers to their spagetti sauce. The thicker and meaty and chunckier it was, the better. I think I was in highschool when I first learned that some people use spagetti sauce straight out of the jar or can and plop them over noodles. I thought that was crazy. It doesn’t take much to doctor up some spagetti sauce. I think adding the extra veggies and herbs to the sauce makes the sauce taste so much better.

When I’m making spagetti I’m going to make a giant batch of spagetti sauce. Why go through all the effort of making a sauce just for one tiny meal. If you make a big batch, you can have spagetti for dinner one night and then use the leftovers to make this yummy noodle bake.

I could call it a lasagna, but I didn’t use lasagna noodles, so I didn’t want to confuse anyone with that. However, this recipe works just as well with lasagna noodles or really just about any type. I have used spiral, penne, and lasagna.

If you already have some spagetti sauce, get it out of your fridge or freezer and use it. If you don’t have any on hand, I included how I made this sauce, and a lot of it depended on what I had in my fridge that day. Make the sauce how you like it; if you don’t like mushrooms, leave them out, add a pepper instead. It is really hard to mess up spagetti sauce.

The pictures are more of a visual step by step of the directions for the noodle bake then for the sauce.

Spagetti Sauce Ingredients

• 2 jars of Spagetti sauce
• 2 lbs cooked ground beef
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 stalks of celery, sliced
• 1 carton of mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tspn salt
• 2 tspn pepper
• 4 tspn dried oregano

Cheese Filling Ingredients

• 1 small carton of cottage cheese (10-12 oz)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1/2 tspn pepper
• 1/2 tspn garlic powder
• 1 tspn oregano

Other ingredients

• 1 box of noodles (penne or spiral work well, beside the lasagna noodles)
• 2-3 cups spinach (optional)
• 1 cup mozzarella, shredded

Directions

• In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, with two garlic cloves and half the sliced onion. Add the salt, pepper and oregano.
• While the meat is browning, slice up any of the other vegetablas that you are going to add. When the meat is almost done, add the veggies and the rest of the garlic and onions and diced tomatoes.
• After you have added the vegetables and they have softened, taste to see if you need more salt.
• Add the Spagetti sauce of your choice and simmer until warm.
• While the sauce is simmering crack an egg into the cottage cheese and add salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano. Mix the egg and spices thoroughly with the cottage cheese.
• When the sauce has heated through, take of the heat and let cool.
• In a 9 × 9 pan cover the bottom with a thin layer of sauce, about 1/8 “. If you aren’t sure, more sauce is better than less; the noodles are going to cook in the sauce.
• The first layer needs to be sauce, and then place a layer of the dry noodles over the sauce. Make sure none of the noodles are over lapping.
• Layer like a lasagna. Sauce, noodles, cottage cheese mixture, spinach (optional), sauce, noodles, cottage cheese mixture, spinach, sauce and then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
• Place in a preheated 350° oven for 50-60 minutes.