Spaghetti Pie: You’ll Love This Meal-Prep Freezer Meal
Spaghetti Pie is the first freezer meal I was ever aware of. It’s a quick way to turn leftovers into something new that you can pull out and bake in a pinch. Simpler than a lasagna, spaghetti pie boasts the same Italian comfort food flavors and saves you tons of time on construction.
You Need Spaghetti Pies in Your Freezer
Before we get into this recipe, here are a few ways prepping a few spaghetti pies to keep in the freezer is really handy:
- Whether your friends are sick, going through a rough patch, or having a new baby, they could probably use a hand with dinner one night. When you have a stack of frozen spaghetti pies in the freezer, you can just pull one out, grab a loaf of bread from the grocery store, and help someone out with very little effort on your part.
- We all have rough days, and sometimes, we just can’t summon the energy to make whatever meal is on the dinner menu. That’s when you pull out a spaghetti pie and pour yourself a glass of wine.
- Unexpected company is not super common these days, but it’ll happen again eventually. When it does, don’t worry about how you’ll feed them. There’s a spaghetti pie (or two) in the freezer.
- Thank God you finally got a babysitter and can go on a date with your partner. Instead of leaving pizza money, you popped a spaghetti pie in the oven. So, you know your kids are getting a healthy dinner, and it was cheap.
Ridiculously Convenient to Make
Honestly, my mother always had at least two spaghetti pies in our freezer at all times. If we ran out, we knew spaghetti and meat sauce night was coming, followed by the spaghetti pie production line.
See, that’s part of the beauty of this recipe, too. You could, of course, go into it just to make some pies, but honestly? It’s 1000% more fun to make dinner and turn the leftovers into something great.
Spaghetti Pie: A Good Use of Leftovers
No one’s kids are going to wait around for them to make spaghetti pie for dinner when there’s perfectly good spaghetti and meat sauce RIGHT THERE AND IT’S READY NOW, MOM!
So. You know. Feed your little monsters first. Then make pies for the freezer. That way everyone stops griping AND you have something on hand when the shit hits the fan.
Make Enough Spaghetti for Leftovers
When you go to make spaghetti dinner, you want to prepare the whole box of pasta. If your family can already go through a whole box in one meal, make two boxes. The idea is that you want leftovers and lots of them.
Same goes for your meat sauce. Make double. And if you’re at a loss for what meat sauce recipe to use, don’t worry… I’m using my own recipe for a super easy turkey sauce.
So, after everyone is full on dinner, you’ll find that your spaghetti has cooled enough to handle it and the meat sauce isn’t as steamy; this is good. If you’re just making pies and not stopping for a spaghetti dinner, just take a little break to let things cool a bit.
Assembling Spaghetti Pies
Now, grab some pie plates. For one pie, you need 4 cups of cooked spaghetti and 2 cups of sauce. Depending on how much you have in leftovers, you can probably make multiple pies. And if you have a little less than that, it’s fine. I usually just eyeball my measurements anyway.
Dump the pasta right into that pie plate.
In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup of fat free or low fat cottage cheese with 1 egg. Pour that over the pasta, and then use your hands to toss it together. You want the egg mixture to fill in the space between the noodles. This also helps the spaghetti hold the shape you want.
Gently press the pasta, egg, cottage cheese mixture into the sides and bottom of the pan, forming a very thick “crust.” You don’t want it pressed so much that you mush the noodles. They should retain their shape. It’s just a matter of creating space for the sauce.
Pour 2 cups of sauce into the center and spread it out a little. You want an even layer. Finally, just sprinkle the top with mozzarella cheese and cover with foil.
Label the Pies for the Freezer
I like to use a permanent marker to write on the foil so I know what it is and what to do with it. This is really helpful when you’re giving pies away or expecting a child to make dinner. Something along the lines of:
“Spaghetti Pie
Thawed: Bake covered 375ºF for 30 minutes OR
Frozen: Place in cold oven while preheating. Bake 375ºF for 1 hour.”
The note, there, about cooking it frozen is because I use Pyrex pie plates, and I don’t want them exploding going into the oven frozen. If you’re using the disposable foil pie plates from the store, it’s fine to put those into a hot oven.
Now, if you’re looking to make, say, a dozen spaghetti pies, you could print stickers out with those instructions and stick it on the foil. Just remember that STICKERS CANNOT GO IN THE OVEN.
In that case, double foil the thing so that whoever receives your spaghetti pie as a gift doesn’t have to do anything besides remove the top layer to bake it.
Can You Bake Spaghetti Pie Uncovered?
You’ll see in the pictures that my cheese got really dark. This is because I did, in fact, bake this uncovered for the entire 30 minutes. When you do not cover your pie, the cheese gets the full force of the oven and gets really nice and brown.
If you’re cooking a frozen spaghetti pie, the foil covering, though, is very important and it holds the heat in and helps it cook faster. I do not recommend cooking a frozen spaghetti pie uncovered because it will take about 2 hours, the middle might still be cold, and the cheese on top will have burned.
So. If you’re cooking it thawed, fine. Go uncovered. Just know the mozzarella is not going to be gooey. I kind of like the way browned cheese tastes, but some people are all about that melty, stringy topping. You have some options here.
And with that, I think I’ve about covered any question you could have about spaghetti pie, so message me or comment below if you need help. For me, these are less about measuring and more about slapping together a freezer meal quickly. It’s super easy, so don’t stress too much about perfection here.
Comment your questions or concerns, or let me know how yours turned out! Read the comments because there’s a good chance my mom will have some pointers I missed (if she does, I’ll edit the post to add them in). And don’t forget to subscribe for weekly updates and nifty freebies!
Spaghetti Pie
Equipment
- Pie plate
- Small Bowl
Ingredients
- 4 cups spaghetti cooked and cooled
- ¾ cup low-fat or non-fat cottage cheese
- 1 large egg beaten
- 2 cups prepared meat sauce (link to Elle Jay at Home's meat sauce recipe in the notes)
- ½ cup low moisture mozzarella shredded
Instructions
- Whisk together the egg and cottage cheese. Add to the spaghetti in the base of your pie plate. Throughly combine and spread the eggy pasta evenly around the sides and base of your plate, pressing firming to shape the "crust."
- Pour your meat sauce into the center of the pie, and cover in shredded mozzarella.
- Cover with foil. Freeze for up to 6 months, or bake at 375ºF for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 5 minutes to brown the cheese.
- If baking from frozen, it's best to thaw it completely first. Then bake at 375ºF for 30 minutes, covered, and then 5 minutes uncovered.
- To bake it frozen, place the frozen pie in the oven at the start of preheating. Set the oven to 375ºF, and set the timer for 1 hour (from the start of preheating). This is gentler for your pie plate. Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes to brown the cheese.Check the internal temperature and make sure it's reached 165ºF before serving.
Notes
Click the link below to go to the recipe for Elle Jay at Home’s turkey meat sauce.
