Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce

This recipe is one of those visually tricky dishes that make you think you’re eating pasta, when you’re really not.  Unfortunately, my noodle-head of a daughter wasn’t fooled the first time I served it so when I make this dish for the family, I still have to make traditional noodles for her.

If you haven’t prepared spaghetti squash before, be forewarned, it’s a bit weird at first.  Admittedly, it took me a few tries to get the level of cooking tenderness down to a science, but once I did, I discovered that I really enjoyed making it.

You can prepare this recipe completely vegetarian by using a jarred marinara sauce from the store, or if you happened to recently make the ‘Braciole with Meat Sauce’ recipe from my post on June 16th and had sauce left over, this would be a great opportunity to use some of that sauce!

To see that recipe, click here.

Ingredients:

1 whole spaghetti squash
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups bottled marinara sauce or home-made meat sauce *
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

*see note above

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2) Cut the squash in half and scrape out the seeds.

3) Line a cooking tray with aluminum foil and season the squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place the squash flesh side down and roast for 40 to 45 minutes until you can easily pierce the outside skin of the squash with a fork. Remove the pan from the oven and let the squash rest until its cool enough to handle.

4) While the squash cooks, heat the sauce in a saucepan on the stove until hot.

5) When the squash is cool enough to handle, using a large metal spoon, scrape the strands of squash from the inside of the shell and distribute it onto plates. Top the squash with the heated sauce and a sprinkle of the freshly grated Parmesan.

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