Daria Can Cook – and so can you!

Why has no one told me how awesome spaghetti squash is?!?

Ok, ok, many wonderful bloggers have extolled the virtues of spaghetti squash. Sometimes I’m just slow. For instance, I discovered the Dandy Warhols…in 2007. That would be 10 years after they were cool. Oy.

Some things are worth discovering, however, no matter how late you come to them. I roasted my first spaghetti squash today and found it to be the most magically Dr. Seuss-like food I’ve ever encountered. I knew that there was “spaghetti” in the middle of the squash, but I did not realize that the whole squash is filled with spaghetti-like strands! It grows in strands! Isn’t that amazing?  How to Roast a Dr. Seuss Spaghetti Squash

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Poke holes around the stem ends of the squash with a fork or a sharp knife.

3. Place the squash in a pan (I used a 9×13 metal baking dish) and roast for 30 minutes.

4. After 30 minutes of undisturbed roasting, turn the squash occasionally (I turned mine every 10 minutes or so). The squash should be done after an hour of total roasting time has elapsed. Parts of the outside will be a nice, gooey, carmelized brown and it will be soft to the touch.

5. Slice the squash in half. Use a fork to remove the seeds and to pull out the “spaghetti” strands.

Prior to roasting my squash, I made meat sauce in my slow cooker using onions, garlic, baby portobella mushrooms, black olives, canned tomatoes and tomato paste, beef stock, red wine, and some of our CSA ground beef. Dinner came together in the following stages:

That’s Trader Joe’s olive tapenade on a nice crusty baguette on the side and the leftover wine from the meat sauce. I love it when a recipe calls for wine!

This dinner was a knockout. The squash had a pleasant, neutral taste that paired nicely with the rich meat sauce. The baguette was useful for sopping up the extra sauce that I poured on after I took this nice picture. And the wine was useful for relaxing on a chilly winter evening. And did I mention that you can eat the most enormous portion of this “spaghetti” without feeling stuffed? I’m officially hooked.

Related posts:

1. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
2. Cyclops Squash
3. CSA Adventure #1: It tastes like chicken!