November 11, 2011: Spaghetti Pie Recipe

Who doesn’t love spaghetti? Spaghetti, with or without meatballs, is a old-time favorite with families everywhere. And what’s not to like? It’s a dish that’s filled with the good homey flavors of garlic and tomatoes, it’s an economical dish, and it’s easy to make a large quantity to feed lots of hungry diners.

Next time you make spaghetti, try making it in a pie plate or quiche pan instead of serving the usual way and see what your family thinks.

Spaghetti Pie

6 ounces spaghetti

2 T. butter

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 t. dried parsley

1 eggs, well beaten

1 cup cottage cheese (optional)

½ lb. lean ground beef

½ lb. pork sausage

½ cup chopped onion

¼ cup chopped Bell pepper

1 8-ounce can tomatoes, chopped

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 t. sugar

1 t. dried oregano

½ t. garlic salt

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions; drain. Sir butter into hot spaghetti; add Parmesan cheese, parsley and eggs. Spread spaghetti mixture in bottom and up the sides of greased 10-inch pie plate or quiche pan to form crust. Spread cottage cheese, if using, over the top of the spaghetti crust.

In skillet, cook ground beef and pork sausage until browned. Drain; add onion and peppers and cook an additional two minutes, until vegetables are softened. Stir in undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, and spices; heat through.

Spread meat mixture over prepared spaghetti crust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top. Return to oven and bake 5 minutes longer, until cheese I s melted.

Serves 6

July 15, 2011: Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Some years ago I worked at a hotel near downtown Mesa, Arizona. While I was there, I became friends with one of the maintenance workers, Bob. Bob was the quintessential Italian-American, complete with faint New York accent and proud, dark moustache. Who better, I thought, to ask for a recipe for spaghetti sauce?

Bob was gracious enough to share with me his family recipe for authentic Italian spaghetti sauce and it’s the one I always use now. As for those handy sauces in a jar like Prego? Forgedaboutit!!

Tip: If you’ve got tomatoes fresh from the garden ready for use, blanch and peel them and use them in place of the canned tomatoes in this recipe.

Bob’s Spaghetti Sauce

5 cloves garlic, minced
4 T. olive oil

Heat olive oil to medium in a large pot. Add garlic and brown slowly just until slightly brown.

Add:
3 pint cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste

Add to pot along with 2 empty paste cans of water; stir. Continue to cook over medium heat until it begins to boil. Reduce heat to simmer.

If using Italian sausage, boil in one-quarter inch of water until white, then add to sauce at this time.

After 45 minutes of cooking, add basil, parsley, oregano (about 1 tablespoon of each) and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Continue simmering. After an hour, taste and add more seasoning as needed. If it tastes bitter, add a bit more sugar. Spoon grease off the top of the sauce as needed (if using sausage) or place a slice of soft bread on top to soak up the grease. Add water if the sauce is too thick.

Cook for a minimum total time of two to two-and-a-half hours.

April 29, 2011: Spaghetti Croquettes Recipe

I have to admit it; I love pasta! I’ve tried doing the Adkins diet before with disastrous results. More recently, I decided to try the Caveman diet… It didn’t go any better. The problem is that I crave carbohydrates almost more than anything else. Give me a meatless meal filled with pasta and bread and rice and cheese (gotta have cheese) and I’m happy as a clam. Try to make me eat a lean protein and pure veggies and I am not a happy camper.

I’ve decided to give up the fight and face facts: I’m a carbohydrate lover. There, I’ve said it. I feel like I’m in the 12-step program!

Anyway, I’m always looking for innovative ways to prepare pasta, one of my favorite carbs. This particular recipe has a bit of a story behind it. It was nearly 30 years, when I was in college, that my best friend at the time, Beth, invited me to stay with her parents in Deming, NM for the weekend. It was the end of the semester and we’d both been cramming hard for finals. A quiet, relaxing weekend in the shadow of the Florida (pronounced Flo-ree-da) Mountains near Deming sounded like just the ticket.

I wanted quiet and relaxing and that’s what I got. There was really nothing to do there. Beth’s father was quite the character. He was retired from the military, where he used to be a cook. One of his hobbies was to go out in the desert and catch rattlesnakes. He’d sell off the rattles but keep the meat. He actually canned the rattlesnake meat… he proudly showed off one of the jars, which was filled with mushy, gray meat swimming in a pool of cloudy liquid. Luckily, we weren’t expected to try rattlesnake because there was no way I was going to ingest that stuff! Unfortunately, even his cooking of "normal" food wasn't too tasty. I thought of all those poor soldiers the man had fed throughout the years and said a silent prayer of remembrance for their suffering.

One thing I did do that weekend was thumb through Beth’s mother’s collection of cookbooks. She had some old ones, which I thoroughly enjoy reading. I grabbed a notebook and wrote down the recipes that interested me. The following recipe is one of those; I hope you enjoy it!

Spaghetti Croquettes

6 ounces thin spaghetti
6 ounces grated cheese (I used Parmesan)
1 egg
Garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 T. butter
1 cup bread crumbs, divided (coarse, such as panko or freshly made sourdough, works best)
Fresh or dried parsley flakes

Boil spaghetti until done (about 10 minutes) and drain. Place it back in the hot pot and add the butter. Stir until the butter is melted. Add the remaining ingredients except parsley, using ¾ cup of the bread crumbs, and stir until thoroughly combined. Let it cool completely.

Grease a small baking dish, such as an 8 x 8 inch pan. Use a fork to twirl a quarter of the spaghetti mixture onto the tines then deposit in a bun shape in the greased pan. Repeat with remaining mixture. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs and parsley over the top. Bake in a hot oven (that’s what the directions say; I put them in at 375 degrees) for 20 minutes. Serve with hot tomato sauce.