Cranberry spaghetti is the internet's latest pasta experiment, blending classic meat sauce with a can of cranberry sauce. I made this sweet-meets-savory mashup to see whether it's worth trying.
I’ve tried plenty of questionable culinary mashups over the years, some delightful, some confusing, some that still haunt me every time I open my pantry. So when cranberry spaghetti started trending online, I knew I had to make it, if only to satisfy my curiosity.
The original Instagram video comes from creator Sabrina Burke, who has a contagiously bubbly, Southern-hostess energy—think Paula Deen’s extremely cheerful cousin who loves a theme and isn’t afraid of a little chaos in the kitchen. And honestly? This dish fits that vibe perfectly.
What is cranberry spaghetti?
Cranberry spaghetti is basically a meat-heavy spaghetti dish with a curveball thrown into the mix. It starts the same way any regular weeknight pasta might, with browned ground meat and jarred spaghetti sauce. Totally normal so far.
Then comes the moment that turns this dish into something of a question mark: Sabrina mashes a can of jellied cranberry sauce with a fork and stirs it straight into the sauce. No ceremony, no hesitation—just plop, mash, stir.
After that, it’s classic Christmas-dinner-meets-church-potluck energy. She even tosses a strand of pasta at the wall to “test” its doneness, cheerfully informing her viewers that if it sticks, it’s ready—a method that’s more myth than culinary science. The pasta is then plated with a ladleful of the sauce and finished with a generous heap of a ricotta-Parmesan mixture.
This isn’t a cheffy recipe, and it doesn’t pretend to be. It’s comfort food with a holiday twist, delivered by someone who looks like she’d offer you a glass of sweet tea the moment you walked through the door.
What does cranberry spaghetti actually taste like?
To me, it tasted like spaghetti that’s been a bit too influenced by holiday peer pressure. To my kids, it tasted like a candy-coated dream they didn’t know they were allowed to have on a weeknight.
Meat sauce made with ground chuck and country sausage would normally taste rich and savory, but here it takes on an undeniable sweetness. It doesn’t taste like dessert, exactly, but you can definitely tell there’s something fruity happening underneath the surface. Not altogether unpleasant, but a bit too sweet for my palate. I personally prefer a sauce that leans savory and tomato-forward. Once it gets too sweet, it starts tasting more factory-made than fresh, which is where this one started to lose me.
Would I make cranberry spaghetti again?
For myself, I would have to say no. I remain firmly planted in the camp of earthy, savory spaghetti sauces—the kind where the only sweetness comes from really fresh tomatoes and maybe a kiss of balsamic vinegar. The cranberry sauce added more sugar than I enjoyed, and though the ricotta-Parmesan topping helped dial it back, it just didn’t quite get me there.
My kids, however? They inhaled it. (Of course they did.) The fruitiness and candy-adjacent sweetness hit every button their taste buds love, so as far as they’re concerned, cranberry spaghetti is a win.
If you like a sweeter, brighter pasta sauce—or you’re feeding people who do—you might actually enjoy this festive little detour!
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