Baked Bacon Spaghetti

Okay, here me out on this one. I know it sounds odd. But you are going to thank me later. Sometimes I even have to convince myself to try my crazy ideas, but then I remember it is on meal out of my life so give it a go! Baked Bacon Spaghetti is going to be a new favorite for you. The smoky flavor of a crispy thick-cut bacon added into a quick but flavorful red sauce is such a delight. Then you add in the past and cheese and it’s over – dinner is a winner!

I use a thick-cut bacon for this recipe (and most recipes that call for bacon). I like my bacon to eat like a meat and not as just an add in. If you don’t normally go for thick-cut bacon, I want to encourage you to get it for this recipe. Since it is the only meat in this dish, you want to make sure you can really taste it. For the parmesan cheese, you want to get shredded and not grated. Since the sauce doesn’t cook for a super long time, the grated version stays sort of grainy and it’s just unpleasant.

As I noted in the recipe, if you don’t have any individual baking dishes (I love mine) you can bake the whole batch of spaghetti in a single 13×9 baking dish. You will just want to increase the time to 30 minutes so that the center gets nice and warm. The only real reason I prefer the individual baking dishes (sometimes call gratin dishes) is because you get your own big ol mountain of melty cheese, that can’t accidently fall off and be put on someone else’s dish. Yes, I am that obsessed with cheese.

To keep with the classic spaghetti idea, I served this with some garlic bread. I do sort of wish I had opted for a green salad to go with it too, as it was a very carb heavy meal – but oh so worth it!

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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Baked Bacon Spaghetti

Smoky bacon in a red sauce over sauce and baked under a mountain of mozzarella

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Keyword bacon, baked pasta, cheese, mozzarella, Parmesan, Pasta, red sauce

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Equipment

• 6 Individual Baking Dishes

Ingredients

• 1 lb Thick-cut Bacon cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 Small Yellow Onion minced
• 4 Garlic Cloves minced
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 3 28oz cans Crushed Tomatoes
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese shredded
• 1 lb Spaghetti
• 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese shredded
• 1 cup Garlic Croutons crushed

Instructions

• Start water boiling for the pasta. Preheat oven to 375degF.
• In a frying pan over medium-high heat, add bacon, onions, garlic, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes. Cook until bacon is crispy. Drain off excess grease. Reduce heat to medium low and add crushed tomatoes and let simmer.
• Add pasta to boiling water and cook for 9 minutes (it will not be fully cooked). Drain in colander and return to pot.
• Stir parmesan cheese into red sauce and pour over pasta. Toss to coat. Divide pasta up into baking dishes. Sprinkle each with mozzarella cheese and then crushed croutons. Bake for 20 minutes.
• *If you don't have individual baking dishes, you can use a 13×9 baking dish, just increase bake time to 30 minutes.