Traditional spaghetti with a hearty meat sauce piled high on top of crunchy garlic bread is spaghetti boats. Spaghetti boats are all your favorite parts of spaghetti night neatly stacked up so every bite is the cheese, noodles, meat sauce, and garlic bread.
Plain French Bread turned Spaghetti Boats!
This spaghetti boats recipe is a simple concept that packs serious flavor!
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
First, you will need to prepare the spaghetti noodles, meat sauce, and garlic butter separately before we can build our boats. I tend to do them all at the same time. Browning the beef, boiling the noodles, and melting the butter in the microwave can be all going on around the stove simultaneously. Each just takes time management and some stirring. Once they are done mix in each other’s, other ingredients and you’re ready to get to the fun part.
Secondly, you slice your french bread lengthwise creating a top and bottom. Place each of these cut sides up on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and you have your boats. Then you will coat the boats in the garlic butter sauce. I used a pastry brush. I brushed all sides putting more on the top than anywhere else. Next, put the boats in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until the boats are slightly browning.
Third, start to pile on the spaghetti with meat sauce top with cheese. I used about 13oz of the 16oz of the spaghetti noodles. We just enough leftovers for someone’s lunch the next day! Yay! While putting on the noodles, I would actually press them into the bread to get more noodles packed in each bite. Then I spooned on the meat sauce. You be the judge here. You can do as little or as much as you like. Lastly, I top it all generously with shredded mozzarella cheese. I gave it all one more pressing down, to make it stick, before baking it 5-7 minutes. Then broil to melt and brown the cheese. Done!
Now enjoy it’s time to enjoy these delicious spaghetti boats! Take a chef’s knife and slice them into 1-inch sections. Having the boats on a cookie sheet makes slicing these guys a breeze because there’s no edge to have to workaround. Just be careful when handling the sheet to and from the oven as it can tend to slide. Serve them warm with any number of sides or none at all. Enjoy!
This spaghetti boat recipe is such a fun twist on traditional spaghetti nights with garlic bread that my kids are constantly requesting them. It’s a neat way to pack all the flavors of cheese, meat sauce, spaghetti, and garlic into every bite! They are a perfect size too for little hands in turn making it so much less mess than traditional spaghetti! I can see these as the perfect appetizer for game day, birthday parties, and all special occasions. I can’t wait for you to try these delicious spaghetti boats!
Spaghetti Boats
Ingredients
To prepare spaghetti noodles in sauce
- 16 ounce spaghetti noodles cooked to desired tenderness
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
To prepare the spaghetti meat sauce
- 1 pound lean ground beef drained and browned
- 12 ounce tomato sauce
- ¼ cup water
- 1 spaghetti seasoning packet
To prepare garlic butter
- ½ cup butter (1 stick) melted
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesaon
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
Other
- 1 12 oz loaf French bread
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° Farenheit.
Prepare the spaghetti noodles in sauce, spaghetti meat sauce, and butter mixture.
- To prepare the spaghetti noodles in tomato sauce bring a pot of water to a boil(Per package intrucations.) and boil noodles to desired tenderness, drain noodles, and return to pot. Add tomatoe sauce, sugar and black pepper. Mix until combined.
- To prepare the meat sauce: In a medium skillet, brown and drain ground beef. Return to skillet. Add in tomato sauce, water, and seasoning packet. Simmer for at least 10 minutes.
- To prepare the garlic butter melt the butter down to a liquid in the microwave in a small bowl. Add parmensaon cheese, orageno, and garlic. Mix to combine and set aside.
Time to build our spaghetti boats!
- Cut the french bread down the middle horizontally creating a top and bottom slab or boats. Put the boats on a baking or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper cut sides up.
- Taking a pastry brush coat the boat tops generously with the garlic butter mixture using the entire mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes just until the top and side are lightly browning.
- Remove boats from oven and pile on the spaghetti noodles and then the meat sauces on top of the noodles. Once you have your preferred about of spaghetti on the boats evenly add the mozzarella cheese. You might want to even press the cheese down into the boats to make it stay.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes until cheese melts and then broil for 2-3 minutes to brown cheese slightly. Cut into 1-inch slices and enjoy!
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