Southwestern Spaghetti Casserole
A close friend made this Mexican-Italian bake for me almost 20 years ago, and I've prepared it regularly ever since. It comes together in a snap because it relies largely on convenient ingredients I keep on hand. We like it with a loaf of crusty bread. —Rose Turner Minnick, Christiansburg, Virginia
Ingredients
- 12 ounces uncooked spaghetti
- 1-1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 envelope taco seasoning
- 1 jar (26 ounces) spaghetti sauce
- 1 jar (4-1/2 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained
- 1 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- Shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sour cream, salsa and picante sauce
Reviews
This is my new go to spaghetti dish! I really like the meat/sauce to pasta ratio, and my daughter, who's not a spaghetti fan, loves it! I don't put in the onion, and use lower sodium taco seasoning.
What a great change to plain old spaghetti! I cut the recipe in half for just my husband and I. I used lower sodium taco seasoning and it tasted just fine. The spaghetti sauce I used was fire roasted red pepper & garlic. I omitted the mushrooms too. I wound up putting it into a glass pie dish, so it was more of a southwestern spaghetti pie haha. I used mostly cheddar but threw in some mozzarella as well. Delicious! Don't skip the toppings... we loved the added crunch of the lettuce, and the salsa and sour cream really brought out the taco flavor. Will make this again!
This southwestern spin on baked spaghetti is yummy!!
A south of the border version of spaghetti. I left out the olives because my family doesn't like them.
I really liked this recipe and took it to the school for hot lunch. The kids really enjoyed it. Use all the regular toppings: sour cream, cheddar cheese, olives, etc.
Made this tonight for my family and they LOVED it. I cut the calories by using 90/10 ground beef and reduced fat cheese. Used the Healthy spaghetti. Spiced it up with hot and spicy Taco mix. Left out olives and mushrooms since my family doesn't like either.
I made some changes to the recipe. Not particularly liking black olives, I increased the amount of mushrooms to approx. 7 oz. Instead of sprinkling all the cheese over the top before baking, I sprinkled half over half the spaghetti mixture and the other half over the top of the full amount.
I loved baked pasta, and this is a great twist on traditional spaghetti. My only negative is that it can be a little dry.
I made this with the Barilla PLUS Protein Spaghetti which made a very hearty meal. I only had a 24 oz jar of spag sauce so I added a good splash of HOT taco sauce to make up for the difference. LOVED it! I loved mixing the bake with the lettuce, sour cream and tomatoes- very good. You may want to try a milder sauce though if you don't like things too spicy. Even my kids liked it!
I tried this for family and friends and it was a huge hit! Everyone loves it.