Spaghetti Squash
(Maggie - immaggiemae)

Since a few of you expressed interest, here's my spaghetti squash deal. Without it to substitute for pasta, I'm not sure I'd be as happy with this WOE. ;-)

Split the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and place on a cookie sheet in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. I spray a little Pam on the cookie sheet to keep it from sticking. Cook the squash for about 45 minutes. When pushed for time, I cook it in the microwave -- I leave it whole, stick a sharp knife in it in a number of places so it doesn't explode, and then cook it for 15 minutes on high, rotating it every 5 minutes. Then I cut it open (use caution and oven mitts -- *very* hot) and scoop out the seeds.

Whichever cooking method I use, the last step is to take a fork and scrape out the flesh from the squash, which comes out in strands. This is best done over a bowl using oven mitts. Then if I'm serving it straight up, I just add butter, salt, parmesan cheese and sometimes a little garlic powder. It's also really good with pesto sauce.

Now, the new thing I did tonight which totally *ROCKED* was to take the leftover spaghetti squash from last night and fry it up. I heated up basil-flavored olive oil in a nonstick pan, put in the squash and pressed down on it to flatten it out into a pancake, and sprinkled it with italian seasoning. After it looked like it was browning around the edges, I flipped it over (okay, so this wasn't so smooth an operation, but it still tasted good). Then I put some shredded mozzarella cheese on top and covered it with a lid so the cheese got all gooey. It was incredible -- DH was grinning from ear to ear when he walked in from grilling and spotted it on the stove. Needless to say, there's not much left but I'm already looking forward to finishing it tomorrow.