It’s Squash Season!
Pumpkin and squash is are everywhere you look. So clearly, this Simple Spaghetti Squash is on the docket! Lucky for me, Ian brought home a cute little spaghetti squash for me recently. The weather has turned cold (I don’t know how I’m going to survive.. I have already worn the jacket that I wore all winter in Europe. It is only fall) and so warm, cozy, feel good meals like this Simple Spaghetti Squash are where it’s at! Speaking of feel good, have you had a chance to try out The Fancy Napkins’ Deep Fried Pickled Beets and Goat’s Cheese with Spicy Mayo yet? Add it to your to do list if you haven’t!
What Carbs?
I love pasta as much as the next person, and in no way am I going to try and tell you that you can’t even tell the difference between carby, floury noodles and squash. BUT! Hear me out, because spaghetti squash is actually so tasty and keeps you satisfied! And I’m all about feeling satisfied after a meal… not feeling like I am going to proceed to eat enough to feed a small village. And if I am going to be honest with you.. sometimes I do eat enough for a small village after I’ve eaten my dinner. I used to be an athlete, what can I say.
If at First You Don’t Succeed
My first time trying this out, I was coming down off of a prosciutto high from some meatballs Ian made the weekend prior. Naturally, I went back to the market and bought myself a massive piece of prosciutto. It didn’t work with the squash. I felt like I was eating spam; not because the prosciutto was bad, but just because of the way I cut it in chunks and put it in with the spaghetti squash. So until further experimentation, I have committed prosciutto from this recipe.
Your Turn
You have to bake the squash for 40 minutes and there really isn’t a ton of other work to do until the last ten minutes, which is pretty awesome if you’ve got some things around the house to accomplish.
After the squash is finished baking, you toss everything together and bake it for a little longer before serving. I served this with Caesar salad because even though it is basically just romaine lettuce and croutons, it’s the best salad around. I’ll post my dressing recipe one of these days, I swear it’s a game changer.
Tips
Something important to note, is that spag squash can be a bit watery. When I scooped it out of the frying pan and into the casserole dish, I used a slotted spoon in hopes that the liquid would stay behind. I also drained it from the casserole dish. THEN when I was reading the August issue of Bon Appetit Magazine (“The Simple Issue” and by far my favourite one so far) there was a suggestion to squeeze as much liquid as you could from shredded squash with a cheesecloth or clean kitchen towel, DUH! I was way too excited to even be ashamed that I hadn’t thought of it myself. And so, that’s what I did my next time trying this recipe and it worked like a top. Thank you, BA!
A few more things. First, this dish doesn’t have a lot of protein in it so I recommend the Fancy Napkins Oven Fried Chicken Thighs. Second, if you haven’t any garlic cloves to rub the squash with, just sprinkle on some garlic powder! And lastly, there is a lot of room here for extra veggies like mushrooms, peppers and asparagus. Chop them up and add them to the onion mixture – you will just need a little more than the last ten minutes, so start a bit earlier.
Please let me know what you thought of this dish! It’s great to get feedback so I know what you all like and dislike and also so I know whether my directions are completely insane or if they are easy to follow.
Happy cooking!
Simple, Satisfying Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients
- 1 two to three pound spaghetti squash
- olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic separated
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes drained
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese divided
- 1 teaspoon basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- Mozzarella shredded (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
- Prepare spaghetti squash:
- Clean the outside of squash with warm water and pat dry
- Cut squash in half, lengthwise and pull off the stem
- Scoop out seeds, you can throw them away or clean, dry and bake them
- Pour a dash of olive oil into each half and rub surface with oil, using your hands or a brush
- Cut one piece of garlic in half and rub it all over the oiled surface of the squash and season generously with salt and pepper
- Place both halves of the squash face down on a foiled baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes
- Meanwhile, mince remaining two cloves of garlic
- Dice yellow onion
- Drain can of tomatoes
- When there are about 10 minutes remaining on timer for squash, heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil on medium heat in a frying pan
- Add garlic and cook until fragrant before adding diced onions, cooking until translucent, turn element down to low-medium
- When the squash is done, let it rest for about five minutes, face down
- Once squash has rested, use a dinner fork to scrape the squash out, lengthwise - careful! It will be hot!
- Add squash to the frying pan and fold in with the onions, garlic and oil
- Add tomatoes, 1/4 cup parmesan, basil, pepper and continue to stir, allowing enough time to ensure everything is nice and hot after adding the room temp tomatoes
- Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup parmesan
- you may transfer the squash to a casserole dish, add mozzarella and broil until cheese is melted and bubbly if you desire
I added prosciutto to one of my pasta dishes last week. Instead of chunks I used thinly sliced pieces from the deli cut in half and fried them up! More expensive than buying a slab but it kind of worked.
Thanks, Laura! That is definitely how I want to try it next time. When you fried them, did they get crispy?
It wasn’t super crispy but it wasn’t rubbery either…
Good to know! Thanks!
My first time cooking a spaghetti squash…the hardest part was cutting it in half lol it is a work out and a half! It’s just cooking in the oven now and then I can’t wait to try this dish out 🙂
This recipe turned out fantastic, I added red pepper, chicken, and spinach to the pan of onions. Definitely will be making this as a regular dish in my house.
So glad you enjoyed this dish! The additions of pepper, chicken and spinach sound great – I’ll have to give that a try!