Properly Prepared Spaghetti Squash

BentSlightly's Note:

This recipe can be substituted in ANY pasta sauce or recipe, and it can be eaten hot or cold. Very versatile main or side dish - and very hard to screw up.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 head garlic
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• vegetable oil
• vegetables or meat or cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350-375.
2. Halve raw spaghetti squash with a sturdy sharp knife, scoop out, and discard the squash poop with a spoon.
3. Place halves onto an oven safe cooking dish face up.
4. Clean head of garlic and thinly slice garlic, (the larger pieces of garlic brown nicely, and offer a wonderful layer of complexity to the dish).
5. Spread garlic into the bowl like shape of the squash, salt and pepper vigorously, drizzle with a 50/50 mixture of olive oil, and vegetable oil (get the oil everywhere inside the squash).
6. Place onto the upper middle rack of the oven for about 30-40 minutes. (You will know it is ready when the squash separates with little resistance from the skin).
7. Remove from oven, and place in coldest location possible for at least 20 minutes, before separating from skin.
8. Use a fork to scoop and separate squash strands, add any other ingredients you like at this point.
9. Parmesan, Romano, or Pecorino, Feta, are all excellent additions to this dish, as well as, meat, sausage, veggies, olives, the list is endless.
10. WARNING **** If you use a loose tomato based sauce DO NOT add it immediately to the squash; this makes the squash runny, mushy, and unpalatable. Instead garnish the dish with a little bit of sauce atop the squash, and then offer more sauce on the side, in a separate dish.
11. If you ever had it served this way you know what I mean.
12. You can also take any leftovers and add a little bit of flour, and make into patties and fry.

Reviews

[septfair]

So easy and yummy! I had to cook mine about 45 minutes at 360. We had it with my spaghetti sauce and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. It was great!! I had some leftover squash cold today with my lunch and it was really good that way as well. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us!!

[Bunkie]

Outstanding! This is by far the best way I've found to prepare spaghetti squash. We only had minced garlic, so we just spread a bunch of that inside the halves, and it worked out well. Other than that minor change, we followed the recipe as written. The strands weren't mushy, and we served them with a tomato-based meat sauce. My six-year-old scarfed it right up - I may never serve regular spaghetti again! We also had a good bit left to freeze, which is always nice. Thanks so much for sharing!

[iamme]

This is the best way to prepare spaghetti squash. The oven roasting gives a better flavor and texture than microwaving it.