Have you ever had spaghetti squash? It’s one of those things that used to make me crinkle up my nose, but then one cold day a couple of years ago, I saw a recipe in Everyday Food that tempted me to try it. Sautéed with garlic and served with a simple tomato sauce with chicken meatballs, it’s somehow light and hearty at the same time. It honestly tastes so good you won’t be thinking about how you’re not eating real pasta at all. Promise. — Angela M.

Here’s how to get started
To make spaghetti squash, all you need to do is buy yourself one, jab it with a fork here and there, and then bake it in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour. While that’s cooking, you can start making the meatballs and sauce.

Click through to the next page for more instructions and the rest of the recipe!

This recipe for chicken meatballs in tomato sauce is pretty simple. I skip the first step, and just buy chicken that’s already ground up. You mix that with an egg, a 1/4 cup of milk, 1/4 of parmesan cheese, dried oregano and one slice of crumbled white bread and some salt and pepper. Make little balls of meat by using your hands — wet them now and then so they don’t get sticky. Then brown them in a large skillet with some olive oil, for about five minutes. Add a whole can of stewed tomatoes and their sauce, and reduce to a simmer for another half hour or so.

Check on the squash in the oven. When it’s soft enough to leave a finger indentation, it’s done. Take it out and let it cool enough until you can handle it. Cut in half with sharp knife, scoop out the seeds with a spoon, and then use a fork to separate out the threads of squash.

After you’ve pulled out all the “spaghetti,” sautée some finely chopped garlic in a pan with olive oil until just before it browns. Add the squash and cook a few minutes, ’til it’s fragrant all the way through. Spoon it onto a plate and top with some sauce and meatballs. Serve to your amazed friends and family who won’t believe that something so yummy is also super healthy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 5:17 am and is filed under cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.