Spaghetti Pie
Ingredients:
- one spaghetti squash, cooked and seeds removed (recipe here)
- enough spaghetti (pasta) for 3-4 servings***
- 1 lb ground beef, turkey, chicken or pork
- 1 jar pizza sauce (about 12 oz)
- 1-14oz can diced tomatoes
- 2-3 cups fresh baby spinach, chard, or other mixed greens, finely chopped
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook ground beef in large skillet until browned and no longer pink, drain excess grease if necessary.
- Add pizzasauce and diced tomatoes and combine well. Salt and pepper to taste, can also add basil, oregano, or other Italian herbs.
- Add chopped greens and stir well.
- Simmer sauce 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook spaghetti according to directions and drain.
- Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish.
- At this point you have two options: add one egg to the spaghetti and mix well, add the other egg to the squash and mix well, then add each to one half of the baking dish (see the picture below). Or, you can mix the pasta with the squash, add both eggs and mix well, then spread the mixture into the baking dish.
- Top the pasta/squash with the sauce, and bake 20-30 minutes, or until heated through. If using the parmesan, add the last 5-10 minutes of baking time.
***Notes: you can skip the pasta entirely and just use spaghetti squash, though you’ll need a bigger squash if you go that route. When I first started making this I used about 50/50 pasta to squash, and kept them separate. This allowed my kids to get used to the squash by serving mostly pasta and a small amount of squash. Now I use mostly squash, with maybe 2-3 servings of pasta mixed in.