Baked Spaghetti a-la Philly (Paula Deen)

What You Need (Paula's Recipe)

1/2 lb. angel hair pasta, uncooked

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. Italian sausage

1 jar (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed

1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 cup KRAFT Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Make It

HEAT oven to 350ºF.

COOK the pasta according to the package directions; drain.

IN a large skillet, brown beef and sausage; drain, if needed. Return meat to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce and cream cheese. Cook over low heat until cheese has blended into sauce and it is heated through.

COVER the bottom of a 13x9-inch baking dish with a little sauce. Add a layer of 1/2 pasta and 1/2 remaining sauce, then a little less than 1/2 of each cheese; repeat the layers, ending with the sauce.

BAKE in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Top the casserole with the remaining cheese, return it to the oven and continue to cook until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 more minutes.

CUT into squares before serving.    

 

What I actually did....

 

 

1 lb spaghetti

8 oz thin spaghetti

1 lb ground beef

8 oz fresh mushrooms

48 oz spaghetti sauce

8 oz low fat cream cheese room temp

2 cups grated cheddar

3 cups mont jack cheese

2 tomatos sliced into about 1/4" disks then cut in half

 

Preheat oven 350.

 

Brown burger, toss in diced mushrooms (i like the pieces a little bigger since they shrink up so much while cooking), add salt and pepper to season.   Add cream cheese and sauce and season, let cheese melt and simmer to bring out the flavor of the sauce. 

Cook the pasta in salted water al dente, drain and toss with evoo. 

 

I think the pan I used was 11x 15?  I put a cookie sheet under it just in case the sauce boiled over.

I layered the pasta and sauce and followed the original recipe for baking...kinda!  When I took the baked pasta out of the oven to add the last layer of cheese I put the fresh tomato slices over the top and then lightly salted and peppered them then topped with cheese.  Once the cheese was melted I turned the broiler on for just a minute to brown the cheese. 

 

 

***Ideas for next time***

 

 - Only uaw 1 lb pasta or add more sauce.  It turned out fine but I wouldn't mind it a little saucier (especially for the left overs).  More mushrooms! maybe some peppers and onions. Maybe a touch more meat - maybe even sausage like Paula does...

 

or. . .

 

- - Instead of topping with tomatos (that was mostly just for style points :), it did add some nice texture and flavor though!)  I might leave the cream cheese out of the sauce and turn it into spaghetti with un-stuffed mushrooms...

 

sauce, pasta, cheese, sauce, pasta, cheese, sauce, bake.  while baking brown 1/2 lb italian ground sausage, once its almost done toss in mushroom chunks (decent sized) and let the shrooms soften up. drain if needed. add 4 -8 oz cream cheese and melt into the meat and mushrooms then when the pasta comes out for the last layer of cheese top it with the mushroom sausage cheese mixture and cook until the top just starts to brown and gets golden :)  mmmmm?  I'll have to try it to know