Spaghetti Squash

Pasta is a huge favorite in our house. It's also one of those things I have a hard time resisting and once I start eating it, I usually eat more than I should. I have read about spaghetti squash for years but never ventured to make it on my own. I got one from a local farm last week and decided to give it a whirl.

Here's the cast for roasting the squash.

To keep the cutting board from slipping on the quartz countertop, I use a wet paper towel between the board and the counter. You don't want a cutting board to slip in general but when cutting a heavy squash, even more so!

I considered a couple of different knives before settling on a large carving knife. In order to cut off the ends, I had to press the blade against the surface and rock it back and forth. Once a small incision was made, I had to keep shifting the blade around the circumference, rocking back and forth a bit more as I went.

It was not easy to do! I did the same process with the blossom end so the squash would sit flat on my board.

So the idea was that I would stand it on its end (as shown) and then slice the squash in half from top to bottom. That was the idea. When I considered how hard it was just to cut a bit off the top and bottom, trying to slice the entire length did not seem feasible to do safely.

So I turned the squash onto its side, cut it in half and then cut each piece in half again.

The smell and interior are very much like pumpkin. I used a spoon to scoop out the seeds and the stringy pulp holding them.

Yup, a lot like pumpkin.

Nice and clean!

A drizzle of avocado oil.

The oil should be rubbed into the cut ends, too.

A sprinkle of salt.

Some black pepper.

The squash pieces were put cut side down onto a foil-lined pan.

I baked them at 400F for about 40 minutes. I turned the oven off and leaving the door ajar, left the squash in to cool. It's cool to see the fibers separating! I refrigerated the cooled squash for the next day.

My original plan was to make spaghetti bowls by breaking up the squash inside its husk and then adding ingredients before browning in the oven. To that end, I did not want to use a full bottle of spaghetti sauce so I just got a small can of tomato sauce and added dried red peppers, oregano, basil, honey and some garlic powder.

I sautéed baby portobello mushrooms in butter and garlic.

The squash fibers are easily loosened with a fork and what I didn't realize is how much I would get! The entire squash "spaghetti-fied" leaving just a thin husk. Since the amount of squash was so copious, I decided to switch gears and make a casserole.

This is from one fourth of the squash.

I tossed the squash with salt and some grated Parmesan cheese then topped it with the cooked mushrooms.

Then the tomato sauce.

I found prosciutto in the fridge so I shredded it up and placed that on the top next.

Shredded cheese and bits of Asiago that I was also trying to use up. Then into a 400F oven for about 20 minutes.

At the end of 20 minutes, the cheese was melted and bubbly so I turned the oven off and left the casserole in for a few minutes more.  It was nicely browned and just a bit crusty around the edges when I removed it.

The guys agreed that the squash was not a "substitute" for pasta but it was a really good alternative! The entire casserole was gone at the end of the meal so regardless of what we label it, I think we agreed that it was quite tasty!

No recipe link tonight--the instructions for baking the squash are pretty generic and I just threw together the second part!