Cooktop Cove: How to make the 'Million Dollar Casserole': You'll want to eat it night after night
By Emma Blecker
Finding a casserole recipe that will render enough food for two — or even three — meals is not usually the hardest part of sourcing the ideal recipe. The most difficult part is finding recipes that are so delicious, the whole family will WANT
to continue eating them night after night. In our book, any casserole that incites minor arguments over the claiming of leftovers is a keeper! This ridiculously yummy recipe for the aptly named '
Million Dollar Casserole' from Sweet and Savory Food fits into this elusive category, and it does not disappoint.
For this stunning recipe, you'll need cooked spaghetti, Bolognese — that is, meaty tomato sauce — sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, chopped onion, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, pepper and shredded mozzarella cheese. There's a great deal of leeway on adapting these ingredients to suit both your flavor preferences and your pantry limitations. The golden rule is to balance out any ingredients that you've replaced with ones of similar consistencies. For instance, if you use less tomato sauce, the casserole would dry out, but if you have a little less than a jar that you'd like to finish off without opening up a new one, try mixing in a bit of chicken stock to loosen up the sauce a bit.
You can easily substitute ricotta cheese for the cottage cheese if you're looking for more sour notes, and you can use leftover cheddar or provolone to top off the casserole instead of the mozzarella — although we'll admit that mozzarella is our favorite choice. You can save money by opting for a meat-free tomato sauce, or you can try your hand at making your own delicious meat sauce. For that, we recommend this deliciously simple recipe from
Real Simple.
To begin assembling this recipe,
Sweet and Savory Food first has you preheat the oven to 375F, and place a large spoonful of spaghetti sauce into the bottom of the casserole dish, then spread it out until the bottom of the dish is well-coated. You then layer half of the cooked spaghetti over the top of the sauce and spread it out until the bottom layer of sauce is completely covered.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, you'll combine the rest of the ingredients until well-blended. Arrange the casserole in layers, and finish off the whole dish with a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. Place the casserole into the oven, and bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Check
Sweet and Savory Food's post for details, but keep in mind that if you're preparing this dish ahead of time, you should refrigerate it overnight, as it does contain perishable ingredients.
In this similar recipe from
Betty Crocker, you beat eggs in with the Parmesan cheese and chop fresh parsley before tossing it all in with the spaghetti to create a sauce. This is an excellent extra step, as the eggs add a silky coating to the spaghetti noodles, while the fresh parsley provides wonderful herbaceous notes to cut through the Parmesan. We recommend serving this dish with a small side salad and some crusty garlic bread. If you have any leftover bread in the cupboard, you can simply use any leftover garlic powder and parsley to whip up a quick batch of garlic bread from scratch. Try this easy garlic bread recipe from
Food Network and enjoy!
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