SPAGHETTI SQUASH DINNER

My daughter and her family recently moved to the country and have numerous neighbors who are always willing to help and share. One neighbor grows spaghetti squash which I love, and I’m happy to say that I was gifted with one of them.

Just the right size for me to use in two meals. That may seem like big helpings, but one cup of spaghetti squash is less than 100 calories and it’s low in saturated fat and cholesterol. I also love to eat some of the strands just after it comes out of the oven.

Squash is really thick-skinned and difficult to cut. Cut off the stem end. Then cut the squash in half. However you decide to cook it -- boiled, in the oven, or in the microwave, do not bother to peel off the skin.



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I like to scoop out the seed with a serrated grapefruit spoon. A tablespoon will work just as well. I’ve heard that the squash seeds can be toasted in the oven like pumpkin seeds. If anyone has a good recipe for doing that, I hope you’ll share it here.


You’ll find numerous ideas for temperatures and times in your cookbooks or on the Internet. I only cook it once or twice each summer and it seems like I do it different (or is it, differently) every time.

While the squash was cooking, I pulled leftover Sloppy Jane mix from the refrigerator and put it in a saucepan over low heat.

Then I sliced a tomato from my garden, topped each slice with a piece of mozzarella cheese, a basil leaf (also from my garden), and topped it all with freshly ground black pepper and a very small amount of kosher salt.


You’ll know spaghetti squash is done when you can run a fork, tines down, through it from end to end (the long way) and it easily shreds out like short strands of spaghetti. Overcooking will make mush which has happened to me in the past. Oh, well, I cook and learn...


I topped the cooked Spaghetti Squash strands with the reheated Sloppy Jane mix and enjoyed it with the Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil Salad.


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