My son Richard has a new crush gastronomically speaking. You won’t believe it when I tell you what it is. Are you ready for this – spaghetti squash. We went to the produce stand at Hillsboro High School last week to buy cheap post Halloween pumpkins and gourds. I was in line waiting to pay when Richard suddenly said, “I want to cook a spaghetti squash. Will you get me one?” Well I nearly dropped my gourds!
Long ago, I tried to pawn spaghetti squash off on Richard and Sammy as pasta. You would have thought I was feeding them dirt - I never made that mistake again. I’ve cooked a small one for myself many times since, but no one has wanted a bite. Too bad, because it’s not only delicious, it’s a diet bargain. A cup only has about 40 calories and that’s pretty impressive until you add the butter and Parmesan cheese. Of course you don’t need a ton and you could make a healthy and tasty choice with a tomato sauce and a little cheese. I like to sauté a bit of garlic to add as well. Once at a dinner party, the host served a casserole with rice and cheese on the bottom and spaghetti squash on the top with a crunchy cheesy crust. I asked for the recipe, which I never got, and as fate would have it, they moved away years ago. That’s a dish worth playing around with to recreate.
Needless to say, I asked Richard what inspired his sudden decision to embrace the spaghetti squash and he said it sounded cool. He called for a recipe, cooked his, and sent me a picture with a message that said YUM! Yesterday was the last day of the season for the produce stand so Richard went and bought five more. He’s here for the Titans game so we’ll cook one. There’s a bonus treat that he didn’t know about – you can cook the seeds exactly like pumpkin seeds from my Halloween recipe. My advice is to follow Richard’s lead, and cook this ten-minute treat so you can have your own crush. It’s love at first bite!
Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
water
salt
Toppings of choice: butter, Parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, sautéed garlic, tomato sauce, fresh herbs
Directions
Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds. Place face down in a glass dish that will fit in your microwave. (Sometimes I cook half at a time depending on the size. It stays warm while you cook the other half.)
Add water to the depth of an inch and add a tsp of salt. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 10 minutes.
Carefully remove plastic wrap, turn squash over and scoop out the strands. They look just like Angel Hair pasta. Kids love this part!
Add toppings you like. Butter and Parmesan with a grind of pepper is hard to beat.
Spaghetti squash can also be baked in the oven face down in water without plastic wrap. It takes about 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
