I love spaghetti squash after it is baked, drizzled with a little coconut oil and sprinkled with Himalayan sea salt & Pecorino. Perfect side dish. Super easy.
Tonight I had planned for spaghetti and meatballs: the husbands fav. However, I just don’t really like rice noodles. I’ll eat them, sure, but they’re just too slippery to be enjoyable. That and I was never a big pasta eater to begin with. So, I instantly thought spaghetti squash would make the perfect “noodle” for tonight’s dinner. But then I fast forwarded to dinner time and could see my sweet husband’s sad face as he looked at me with eyes that said, “Really? You’re serving me this?” I had to be sneakier. Healthy food always tastes better when it looks prettier.
And so it became spaghetti squash pie. It was a hit.
Ingredients:
- 1 Spaghetti Squash
- 3 eggs, divided
- 1 c. ricotta (cow or goat)
- 1/3 c. grated pecorino-romano
- 10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and dried
- 1/4 t. garlic salt
- 1/2 t. sea salt
- 1/4 t. black pepper
- 1/2 lb. extra lean ground beef
- 1/2 jar marinara sauce (favorite store bought or homemade)
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Bake spaghetti squash, whole, for 50-60 minutes, or until tender.
- While spaghetti squash is cooking, brown ground beef over medium-high heat. Add in any additional seasonings you like; I recommend a little garlic, onion powder, and parsley. Once meat is brown, drain and stir in marinara. Remove from heat.
- Once spaghetti squash is cool to the touch, cut top off spaghetti squash an then cut in half, lengthwise.
- While spaghetti squash is cooling, combine 1 egg, spinach, ricotta, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Pulse in pecorino.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 eggs. Shred spaghetti squash with a fork and season with salt, to taste. Add the shredded squash to the egg mixture, coating well.
- Press egg and squash mixture into the bottom of a 9 or 10-in. pie plate. Top with cheese mixture, and then with the meat sauce.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Top with more pecorino, if desired.
