If You Must: Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

by Nicole Cliffe · October 1, 2013

puppy-loveLady: “Wait, is there squash in this?”
Tramp: “Whatever, princess.”

First up, let’s just get this out of the way: spaghetti squash is not pasta. It is never going to be pasta. No one will be fooled. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place in your kitchen.

Me, I’ve been tinkering away perfecting this bad boy for some time now, and am now ready to share it with the world. The internet is full of recipes for spaghetti squash and meatballs, many of them containing three paragraphs about the evils of actual pasta, but all of them were found wanting. But, why are we doing this at all?

1. It tastes incredible.
2. It is a vegetable, which is something your body needs anyway, like the calcium in Tums.
3. It is pretty and colourful.
4. My mom can’t be more than three feet from a bathroom for two days if she eats gluten accidentally, but she misses pasta.
5. …it is also paleo.
6. You can eat incredibly large amounts of it without feeling overly full.
7. You get to hack up a massive squash.
8. SEASONAL EATING.

Now, to the recipe! It serves, I don’t know, either 5-6 people or 2 people who then eat large amounts of it for 3 nights? The sauce just gets better, and I’ll tell you how to perk up the squash on subsequent days.

images-2INGREDIENTS:

1 large spaghetti squash

Sauce:

2 TB olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped (BUY A FREAKING MEZZALUNA TO CHOP AND MINCE IT CHANGES LIVES)
2-3 garlic cloves, minced (I just buy huge jars of minced garlic)
6 cups diced tomatoes, pureed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, leftover tomatoes, whatever. (I love San Marzano tomatoes, personally.)
3 heaping TB tomato paste (try to buy the kind in the squeezy tubes, they last better than the little jars you end up tossing)
1.5 TB Italian seasoning
1 TB dried basil
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sea salt

Meatballs (I do all-meat, because that’s how I roll, but if you’re not gluten-intolerant or paleo or whatever, toss in some breadcrumbs):

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
.5 TB dried basil
.5 TB dried oregano
2-3 garlic cloves, minced

OKAY, let’s boogie. Preheat your oven to 450. Put a large pot over medium heat on your stove, add the olive oil when the pot is hot, saute the chopped onion until it smells amazing and is soft and a little bit brown around the edges.

Toss in the garlic, and stir like CRAZY for a minute, because you want the garlic brown but not burnt.

Dump in the tomatoes and tomato paste, mix it all up. Dump in all the sauce spices, mix it all up.

Let it come to a simmer, then turn the heat down to low.

Put the meat and the meatball spices into a bowl, work it together with your hands (take off your rings first!), and roll yourself a bunch of golf ball-sized meatballs.

Now, a point of contention. To brown or not to brown. Generally, if you brown your meatballs, the meatballs will taste a little better, and if you do not brown your meatballs, your sauce will taste a little better, because there will be more delicious meat-leakage, which is a horrible phrase and I apologize for it. Go ahead and brown your meatballs. I (and Tom Colicchio) usually choose not to, him for sensible reasons and me because who wants to wash another stupid pan?

Drop ‘em in the sauce. Let them hang out. Press them down a bit with a wooden spoon so there is sauce over them.

Spaghetti_Squash_Cooked_500Let us turn our attention to the squash now. To make the next step easier, take a knife and gouge it about six times all over. Put it on a plate and pop it in the microwave on high for two minutes. Flip it over, and do it for another two minutes.

Let it rest a bit, it’s hot.

Now, get a sharp knife, and DO NOT FUCKING HURT YOURSELF, but cut the squash in half. Not lengthwise, it’s too hard. Just down the middle. You may engage in some sawing to achieve this end. Dig out and discard the seeds.

Get a roasting pan (I just use a Pyrex baking dish), put the two squash halves in it, cut-side down. Pour water into the pan until it comes about two inches up the side of your squash. Tent it as tightly as you can with aluminum foil, pop it in the oven.

Let it bake for 40 minutes, while your sauce simmers merrily away on low.

Take it carefully out of the oven: I like to skewer each squash half with a knife and put it on a plate so I don’t have to carry a boiling pan of water out of the oven. You can get the pan out of the oven the next morning when you remember it.

Using a knife or a fork, scrape the spaghetti-looking strands out of the squash, put them on your plates, pour the meatballs and sauce over them, top with Parmesan if you have it, eat!

If you want to gussy it up some, and on subsequent nights to reheat the squash, toss the amount you’re eating in a hot pan with some olive oil and salt, and stir it around until it’s even tastier. To reheat the sauce, please put it back on the stove and let it simmer slowly again, it’s worth it.

Okay, have fun! Tell me if you like it!

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Nicole Cliffe

Nicole Cliffe

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62 Comments

  1. meetapossum +5

    Ah, ha, I have been trying to find a way to use up my ground venison, and I forgot all about the wonder of meatballs!

  2. rkfire +4

    I have never thought of cutting spaghetti squash in half the other way, why have I never done this before?!

  4. Ashley +2

    If you microwave your spaghetti squash for like 5 minutes before you cut it it’s way easier to halve! Also I never put in water–I roast cut side down on a baking sheet with tin foil and the edges get nice and caramelized which adds some nice texture/flavor variation, plus no worries abut a pan full of boiling squashwater.

    1. NicoleCliffe +9

      I SAID TO MICROWAVE IT. Don’t you go accusing me of not microwaving it. Also, I’m totally gonna try the no-water.

        1. highfivesforall +1

          Yes, or stab it all over with a fork and put it in the oven while it’s preheating anyway, then just wait for it to cool off a bit.

    2. Adventure_Club +2

      Do you roast it at a lower temperature without the water? Because when I tried it I found that the edges got burnt before the middle was done. My oven is weird, though.

      1. Ashley

        I kind of basically do it at whatever temp I need the oven for something else for–so last night I was roasting chicken thighs at 425, and just had the squash in there with it for like 1/2 hour? No burning. I’ve also done it for longer at a lower temp–maybe 45 min at 350?

        I also halve it lengthwise so that may make a difference in terms of surface area exposed to heat?

      2. elsamac +1

        I do; maybe 350-400, depending on what else is in the oven with it. A little caramelization around the edges is fine and adds some depth of flavor to the whole dish.

  5. BourneApprox +2

    Stabbing my hand or slicing off my fingers while cutting hard squash is my #1 cooking fear.

    1. elsamac +5

      I always sharpen my chef’s knife before I cut a squash and haven’t had much of a problem, but if that doesn’t work for you, you might try the serrated tool from a pumpkin-cutting kit. (I know.) A friend tried that and said it works really well — which, y’know, makes sense, since they’re designed to cut easily through pumpkins without cutting children’s hands.

    1. embryoconcepts +2

      It really is an amazing sauce. I add lots of garlic, and cook it longer, and it’s the only red sauce you really need to know.

  7. Chickensalad +9

    do you want to hear about the time I severed a tendon carving a pumpkin

    come on, it’s great, let me tell you

      1. Chickensalad +2

        My mom and I went to the ER together and my dad stayed home and finished carving the pumpkin. He said it was fine, he just had to wipe the blood off, and I was almost done anyways.

        They gave me temporary stitches in the ER because my tendon was fucked and I’d have to have outpatient surgery, so I had to come back days later and when they took the massive cast they’d put on me off (WHY SO BIG, it was literally from my fingertips to my elbow for a pinky tendon) there was still dried pumpkin goo and blood. The temporary cast they put on after I had the tendon repair surgery irritated my excema so much that when they removed it I could peel layers of my skin off.

    3. lizardjellybean +2

      Dang oh dang. My mom once burned her eyebrows and a good half inch of her hairline off when putting a candle in a jack o’lantern sprayed with Pam (for freshness). Not one of her prouder moments, but then also it’s really funny to see your mom sans eyebrows. Tendons, though? OOCH.

  8. PaigePoo +5

    UUGGHH all I want in the world is a recipe for meatless meatballs that taste like meaty meatballs and aren’t just fried bread balls. (Or a suggestion for frozen meatless meatballs that don’t taste like balls of sadness).

    Any veggie Toasties have a meatless meatball recipe?

    3. loren_smith +3

      My mum makes these and serves them with a sage-y red sauce. I have never eaten red meat, so I don’t know how legit they are, but they are made of cheese!

      Balls

      2 eggs (lightly beaten)
      3/4 cup cracker crumbs
      1/4 cup wheat germ
      1/2 ground walnuts
      4 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)
      1 clove garlic, chopped
      oil or butter
      Lightly beat eggs then combine with cracker crumbs, wheat germ, walnuts, cream cheese and garlic. Mix well. Shape into small balls. A little messy. Chill on a cookie sheet for 1 hour, then brown in oil or butter.

    4. pinnipedd +2

      I had meatballs made with red quinoa recently! While they didn’t taste particularly meat-like, the texture was really awesome.

  9. Janie_S +12

    I’M SORRY. I CAN’T. SQUASH IS TERRIBLE. YOU CANNOT TRICK ME THIS WAY.

    THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS.

    1. embryoconcepts +3

      I used to be one of your kind. Then I met a…a gateway recipe. Allow me to introduce you to (drumroll, please) Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta, Sage, and Pine Nuts. I served this at the family dinner last year, and even though every single person is a weird and picky about food in a different way, every single person loved it. And it’s healthy, vegetarian and (almost) Paleo.

  10. MrsHuntingCreek

    Mr Hunting Creek is a devout low carb Atkins man, so we love spaghetti squash. Also try it al carbonara style and with Alfredo sauce. My Spaghetti squash moment of triumph was when I made it into Thai green papaya salad, the squash playing the papaya part admirably.

  11. anachronistique +21

    Spaghetti squash is one of those things that was forever ruined for me by my hippie parents attempting to explain that it was “just the same” as the real thing. Squash is not a pasta, MOM, and carob is not chocolate.

    1. sednarea51 +6

      I feel the same way about whole wheat bread. My school lunches were just years of PBJs on Roman Meal. ENOUGH

      1. starrykick +13

        I once read an article where the author referred to brown rice as “punishment rice.” Even though I like it most of the time well enough, it resonated.

        1. sednarea51 +3

          ahahaha. okay, that’s pretty great. I have only just started to like brown rice as a grown-up. The fact that we fed the dog brown rice boiled with chicken for years might have had something to do with that.

  12. ATF +2

    Psssst – you can cook the spaghetti squash in the microwave completely. Pierce with a sharp knife all over and put it in there for 10-15 minutes depending on size. Let rest for 10 minutes after that.

    Now it will easily slice open and then you can remove the seeds and the part that you want to eat. Super, super easy.

  13. tiphane +4

    A mezzaluna is an ulu, what is wrong with you?! I had no idea some fancy pants company was taking a knife used for thousands of years, renaming it, slapping on some nifty handle, calling it innovative (!!!!!) and selling it to people who’ve never used it to fillet a salmon (or are tourists). They really are neat, though, once you get the hang of them. Since they’ve been used for thousands of years! My god.

    Also, I love squash, but spaghetti squash is the devil. Something about the texture, like squishy maggots.

    1. Brunhildenburg +6

      Mezzalune have been used in Italy for hundreds of years, so while it took thousands of years longer for europeans to figure out the ulu concept, it’s not exactly new.

      1. tiphane +2

        Ok, I did not know that. Now I feel bad for being so snarky about it. I guess they can keep their mezzalune’s then. I’ll just stand over here with my ulu and shuffle my feet awkwardly.

        1. Brunhildenburg +2

          No worries! I have one of each. I guess the main difference is that my mezzaluna is twice as big as my ulu and has two handles? I think of them as useful for different things.

  14. MMTortuga +9

    I think I’m scarred from the almonds and apples posts, kept worrying that Mallory was about take over and yell at the spaghetti squash for existing…she’s back there, isn’t she? Had to strap her down, you say? Oh my!

  15. robotneedslove +2

    Can we get some tips on how to use a mezzaluna? I’m pretty nifty with a knife, but for some reason am daunted by that thing.

  16. anotherkate_sf +2

    My mom makes a spaghetti squash carbonara in the summer that is amazing. Drowning the squash in Pecorino Romano, butter, eggs and parsley is a great way to entice the veggie phobic types.

  17. briliantmistake +5

    I regularly make the lazy persons version of this with Newman’s Own sauce and Trader Joe’s Turkey meatballs plus heaps and heaps of romano cheese to counteract any health effects of the squash. It is excellent.

    I have also noticed that when the Ralphs grocery near me runs out of spaghetti squash, they move a few butternut squash over to where the spaghetti squash should be to try and fool the squash ignorant.

    1. Madge McC +6

      Hello Toast,
      I am a squash ignorant. help me.

      i had to read all the comments to work out that we were not making spaghetti OUT OF the squash, but rather that is the name of the squash. because i did not read the VERY first ingredient like a fool.

      my people, we had only the turnip. Squashes are not a thing i know about. (don’t even bother with a turnip, so boring. also, they don’t carve like a pumpkin, not even a little bit, halloween was hard work).

      how are they different from the butternut (which i now know about)? and can they be acquired in the UK?

    2. silly_goose +1

      Another nice lazy person version is to toss the squash with sauce and bits of Italian sausage, and then to sprinkle cheese on top and bake it for, like, half an hour. It’s like pseudo-paleo lasagna!

  19. betsymurgatroyd +2

    I will make this sometime soon. I love spaghetti squash.
    It’s easy enough to freeze canned tomato paste. I usually just throw the leftover lump in a sandwich baggie and add it to my Ziploc of frozen cubes of lime and lemon juice. An extra ice cube tray is your friend.

  21. amandaelsewhere +2

    I made this last night and it was amazing. Question though – my spaghetti squash came out a little watery, and less stringy like spaghetti. What did I do wrong?

    1. NicoleCliffe +1

      Probably nothing! If you’re doing it again, you can do the no-water method posted in the comments above, or, after it’s out of the oven, put the strands in a pan with some olive oil and saute them and let the water disappear.