It all started with a seed. This seed was planted into the bosom of Mother Earth in Grey County, along with several of its brothers and sisters. Over time, they grew and flourished until one day my aunt wondered, “What am I going to do with all these damn things?” That little tale, friends, sets the stage for the inaugural instalment of Good Enough Cuisine: Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs.
Until yesterday, I’d never heard of spaghetti squash. As eluded to in the intro, my aunt’s love of gardening had once again garnered more than she needed so everybody within earshot was offered up to a dozen. Not wanting to see good food go bad, @theguelphgirl and I stepped in to save the poor greenish fellows from a fate worse than deep frying.
I have to admit before going further that it was mostly out of curiosity we decided to accept our allotment. The rumour we’d been subjected to all weekend is that this vegetable, when cooked, winds up as spaghetti-like strands when you scrape out it’s inside. Having stuffed ourselves with turkey for the last couple days, we were in the mood for something light and thought we’ve give it a try.
Beyond cutting it in half, removing the seeds and baking at 350 for 40 minutes, my aunt hadn’t really given us any instructions so we thought we’d kick it up a notch. We put 3 dollops of butter in each of the cavities, sprinkled in some pepper and slices of garlic. While it baked, we turned our attention to the quickest and most ghetto spaghetti sauce you can make without using ketchup. Not because we’re out, I swear.
After sautéing a diced large onion, a couple cloves of garlic, some chilli flakes and some thyme, we dumped in some of your garden variety M&M’s meatballs and cooked them until they were no longer frozen. Next, we dropped in a can of diced tomatoes and let it simmer for a bit to thicken.
When the squash was cool enough to handle, we took spoon and scooped each half out on to a plate. Next, we dropped some liberal helpings of our sauce onto it and mowed down.
The result? Surprisingly good. It’s nowhere near as heavy as spaghetti and, to be honest, the squash really doesn’t taste like much of anything, but all in all it was a nice light meal that took more or less an hour to put together. The only change we’d make is to try fresh pressed or (and I never thought I’d say this) powdered garlic to maybe add a little flavour to the squash because slicing just didn’t do it.
For our other squash, I’ve been thinking of making kind of a spaghetti squash pancake. I like pancakes. Be warned, however, these guys are watery little SOBs.
Once again, I apologize for the crapiness of my phone's camera. 8 megapixels of junk is still junk.
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