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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
There’s something lovely and comforting about a hot casserole. This meaty, cheesy sour cream noodle bake is no exception. Make it for your next big family dinner and see what I mean!
If you have a little extra time to spare in the kitchen, why not make your own Marinara Sauce to use in your noodle bake? Also, don’t forget to serve your noodle bake with a side of Classic Homemade Garlic Bread and some vegetables or salad.
Reader Review
Great comfort casserole. My husband grew up eating “hot dishes” in the Midwest and most recipes were prepared with sour cream and/or cheese of some type … saw this one and decided it would be right up his alley – it was: he loved it … me too!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This recipe is very easy, especially if you recruit a small helper.
- Total Time: This casserole will take you approximately 45 minutes to make, from start to finish.
- Variations: As with most casseroles, the options are almost endless. Change which ground meat you use. Add more green onions or remove them entirely. Try different combinations of cheeses. Add some hot sauce or spicy salsa. Use a different type of pasta, maybe even some high-protein stuff.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe you’ll need a large pot, a colander, a 9×13 casserole dish, a large skillet, a large bowl, and a knife.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Pasta: This recipe calls for rotini, out you can use other similar shapes of pasta. Rotini does tend to hold on to the ingredients around it though, so keep that in mind. Penne, fusilli, or cavatappi would also work well for this. Whatever pasta you use, make sure not to overcook it.
Cheese: There’s a lot of cheese in this casserole! Feel free to modify what’s here or add even more. Whatever works for you.
Ground Meat: Ground beef will give you the richest, meatiest flavour profile, but any ground meat will work with this. Try pork, lamb, turkey, or chicken. Maybe even ground sausage.
Sauce: This is where the sour cream in the name comes into play. You’ll mix it up with cottage cheese, parmesan, tomato sauce, and seasonings to make a creamy and delicious sauce for the pasta.
How To Make Sour Cream Noodle Bake
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13×9-inch baking pan and set aside.
- Cook pasta to al dente, drain, and rinse with cold water to halt cooking process.
- In large skillet, cook ground meat and onions until meat is no longer pink and onions have softened. Drain grease.
- Mix in tomato sauce, garlic, and pepper. Stir and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix sour cream, cottage cheese, parmesan, and 1/2 cup green onions. Mix in cooked pasta until fully coated.
- Put half the pasta into the casserole dish and top it with half of the meat mixture and 1 cup of shredded cheese. Repeat the process with the rest of the pasta, meat, and cheese.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Top with remaining green onions.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Perfect Pasta: This is another one of the recipes where you need to pay attention to the pasta so that you’re not overcooking it by accident. Make sure that your cooked pasta is still slightly crunchy when you mix it into your casserole. You can help make sure sure that it isn’t stuck together into clumps by tossing it with a drizzle of oil after you’ve drained and rinsed it.
Cheese Choices: If you’d like to make the cottage cheese less detectable, you can mash it through a mesh strainer before stirring it into the sauce. Conversely, if you enjoy bigger cheese curds, find a dry curd variety of cottage cheese. As for the Mexican cheese blend, you shouldn’t have any issues finding one in stores. Even store brands have their own versions nowadays. Look for mixes labelled “nacho cheese” or “Tex-Mex”. You could even go a bit more authentic and get some Oaxaca cheese.
Storage Instructions
Fridge: Let the casserole cool and then store the leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can also preassemble this and keep it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before baking it.
Freezer: You can preassemble this casserole in the dish (or a foil pan), wrap it securely in plastic wrap or foil, and freeze it for a few months before taking it out to bake it. Or, do the same once it’s cooked, either as a whole casserole or in individual servings.
More Delicious Pasta Recipes
Looking for more easy and tasty Pasta recipes?
Try a Vegetable Lasagna or Cheesy Egg Noodles for something less meaty.
Creamy Chicken Pesto Pasta and Chicken Korma Pasta are both great options if you’ve got chicken on hand.
Looking for summery side? Make some of this Dill Pickle Pasta Salad.
There, now you’ve got another way to use pasta. I hope you’ll give this classic noodle bake a try and let me know how it turns out.
Happy Cooking!
Karlynn
Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Ingredients
- 3 cups dry rotini pasta
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 medium white onion, diced
- one 15 ounces can of tomato sauce, Flavored is best
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- ½ cup Parmesan/Asiago/Reggiano shredded cheese
- ¾ cup green onions, diced
- 3 cups Mexican Cheese Blend, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Spray 13×9-inch baking pan and set aside.
- Cook the pasta until it’s al dente (still have some texture to it so it’s not mushy when it bakes.) Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Toss with a little bit of olive oil if desired to prevent it from sticking and set aside.
- In a large skillet, fry the beef and white onion together for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft and the beef is no longer pink; drain the grease. Stir in the tomato sauce, garlic and pepper. Stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- In s large bowl, mix together the sour cream, cottage cheese, shredded Parmesan cheese mixture and 1/2 cup of the green onions. IF you have picky eaters leave the green onions out I learned the hard way! You can top with green onions on personal servings instead.
- Mix the pasta into the sour cream mixture until coated completely.
- Spoon half of the pasta mixture into the prepared baking dish. Top with half of the beef mixture and 1 cup of the Mexican cheese blend. Repeat with pasta mixture, beef mixture and remaining 2 cups of Mexican cheese. If you want it cheesier on top, add more cheese!
- Bake in the preheated oven, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until the casserole is thoroughly heated and the cheese is melted. Top with the remaining green onions.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
David Bush says
Can you give us an Instant Pot version? This looks great, but an IP version would make it quicker for a mid week supper.
Terri says
Well this is a winner😀
Susie Bohne says
Great comfort casserole. My husband grew up eating “hot dishes” in the Midwest and most recipes were prepared with sour cream and/or cheese of some type … saw this one and decided it would be right up his alley – it was: he loved it … me too!
Susie Killebrew Bohne says
Great comfort casserole. My husband grew up eating “hot dishes” in the Midwest and most recipes were prepared with sour cream and/or cheese of some type … saw this one and decided it would be right up his alley – it was: he loved it … me too!
Care says
Our entire family grew up loving sour cream and large curd cottage cheese. My mother had an infinite about of recipes using sour cream and/or cottage cheese from potato soup to the most heavenly cheese cake you could possibly imagine. Most all of our veggies had SC and our Friday special was SC, CC and wide noodles cooked and then fried and then topped with the SC and CC! (Meatless Friday)
Our trips to the store always included milk, butter and sour cream. Ahhhh, the good old days! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Love ❤️ your website…..
Nancy Morris says
Easy, quick and delicious! The only thing I added, because I didn’t have enough tomato sauce, was about 1/2 can of Rotel tomatoes. This a keeper for sure, and will be making it again, soon ! ❤️ Thank you
Maball says
Very good, one of the better versions of this classic, probably because of all the tasty garlic.
Shellie Ann LaTourette says
Making this Today March 8, 2021. CAN’T WAIT. Can I pre make this and Bake later today? Have a Blessed Day💞
Karlynn Johnston says
Yes! Just refrigerate it then bake it later!
Kathy says
My hubby hates cottage cheese. May I substitute another cup of sour cream? Looks so yummy, I really want to try it but cottage cheese is a deal breaker for hubby.
Glenna Hartnett says
Sub ricotta for the cottage cheese
shortstuff42 says
Hi Kathy:
If you press the cottage cheese through a really fine mesh strainer it will make the cottage cheese curds very, very small and your hubby probably won’t even notice that his “hated” cottage cheese is in the dish. Besides, it will be mixed with sour cream etc.
That’s what my mom used to make her baked cheesecake and trust me, there we no lumps of cottage cheese in it! (There was never any cream cheese at our house to use in desserts or meals/snacks.)
You could also try whizzing it in a blender or food processor.
Gina west says
Made this and loved it! Me husband does like eat sour cream or cottage cheese if he taste it he lets me know so i make him something diffrent for him for dinner. He gave this one a ” honey that was good and yes i know you put SC and CC in it but im taking some to work that okay? Yeah
Jaime R Pisaruck says
Very, very good!
Rachel says
Hi, I’m not much of a cook myself, but your directions were easy to follow and my husband and I really enjoyed this casserole. Thanks very much fur sharing it. If you have other recipes that even a novice like me can make, please share them! ?
Charlotte Wilson says
Could you post more reviews? I use them to tweek according to my family.s taste.
On another note
Was so happy to see a ground beef casserole that wasn’t Mexican or Italian. Not much variety out there.
Thanks!
Mimi Miller says
Want to see more of your recipes
April says
Five stars allllllll around for this! So rich and decadent can’t wait to make it again!
Wade Ray says
Looks and sounds delicious