Baked Spaghetti

Here's my take on my mom's recipe... It's delicious and makes enough for leftovers (and nothing is better than leftover baked spaghetti- yum!).

Ingredients you need:
1 box spaghetti noddles
1 jar store bought tomato-basil pasta sauce
half a bag of finely shredded mozzarella cheese
about 1 lb of ground beef
about 1/4 cup onions (finely chopped)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
olive oil
fresh basil (dried works too)
fresh thyme (dried works too)
fresh oregano (dried works too)
a shake of crushed red pepper

Cookware you need:
spaghetti pot or large stock pot
medium-large saucepan
9x12 glass baking dish
tin foil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Start off by cooking your pasta, remember to go with the instructions on your box for cooking times because not all spaghetti noodles cook the same. I add some salt and a splash of olive oil to prevent sticking...
Now for the sauce, I used a medium size saucepan. Added a splash of olive oil and saute the garlic and onions for about 5 minutes over medium-high, add in your ground beef and cook until brown and crumbly. Add in your jar of pasta sauce and reduce to a simmer. I have a herb garden now and decided to use that to flavor my sauce. I lightly chopped the leaves of my herbs and tossed them in, along with a shake or two of red pepper to 'add some spice'.  I let my sauce simmer for about 8 minutes...
Meanwhile drain the pasta and grease your baking dish with some olive oil.
After your pasta has been drained, return to it's pot and mix in the pasta sauce.
Add about half of the spaghetti mixture to the baking dish and top with mozarella. (You can add any cheese you would like at this point, I added some leftover fontina and gruyère that was hiding out in my fridge)
Finish with the remaining spaghetti mixture and lightly top with cheese. Cover with foil and place in oven for 20 minutes, remove foil and bake an additional 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Let cool a little then serve.
YUM!

**sorry for such small pictures, my camera is MIA (well, I think it's at my parent's house.) and these were taken from my cellphone.