Spaghetti squash seems to get a lot of push-back, through no fault of its own. People will tell me it’s too mushy, the noodles aren’t long enough, and it doesn’t hold up structurally in dishes. I’ve got some hard news for you. Those issues are all your fault.
The spaghetti squash is more than capable of doing any task you ask, but you have to know how to coax the performance out of it. I am as guilty as everyone else at mistreating a squash and then blaming it for my shortcomings.
It’s like those videos of a guy (it’s always a guy) buying some high horsepower sports car, turning off the traction control, and running out of talent before even getting it to the house. Usually this occurs right from the start by running the car straight into a telephone pole after a tire smoking burnout leaving the dealership.
That’s right, in this analogy, a spaghetti squash is a Ferrari 488. Stick with me on it. And just like that first burnout leading to disaster, the mistake with spaghetti squash starts from the first step, splitting it for roasting.
Side note, Splitting Squash would be a great name for a Smashing Pumpkins cover band. I bet any of you out there that have tackled a spaghetti squash, you approached it like I did and split it lengthwise. First off, that’s an unnecessarily hard way to do it. I used to feel like I needed to take it out to the wood pile with my splitting maul:
Not only is it hard and a bit dangerous to split one lengthwise, it’s also difficult to make that cut even. That leads to one side barely cooked and the other side ready for soup puree. That is no bueno. It also makes the noodles short, which seems counter intuitive, but as with life, things are not always as they seem.
I also roasted the squash with too high heat and longer time than needed. From jump, things would be going sideways, which in retrospect, is ironic. It’s like it was trying to tell me the secret. The most crucial change you can make to perfect your squash noodle game is to cut it sideways instead of by length.
First off, it’s so much easier to make that cut with a chef’s knife, and the cut will be as close to even as possible just by eyeballing it. That will mean both sides will cook at the same time, and they make their own little heat igloos that keep it hot long out of the oven.
It also keeps the noodles long and stringy like regular pasta. Look at the cross cut here. The noodles run around the circumference much like tree rings:
By cutting it sideways, you leave those rings intact, producing long noodles. We are also dropping the heat. I used to roast my squash at up to 425 degrees, which was as overkill as using my firewood splitting maul to cut it. No, we will roast at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, then pull it, and just let it sit while we cook everything else for the dinner.
The residual heat will slowly keep cooking the noodles to a perfect al dente state. Just those steps alone will vastly improve any dish you make with this supercar of veggies. As for those of you saying why not just use regular old noodles made from refined flour, I say both nutrition and yes, taste as well, are vastly better with squash noodles.
Flour noodles taste like…well…nothing. It’s completely dependent on what you put on it, usually a ton of salt and oil. Spaghetti squash noodles bring a sweet and nutty flavor profile to the party all on its own. Nutrition is a clear winner.
Let’s review the tale of the tape. One cup of flour noodles is 220 calories. One cup of squash noodles is 31 calories. Carbs for flour noodles are 43 grams. Carbs for squash noodles are 7 grams.
I don’t have the time or bandwidth to list all the vitamins and minerals you get with squash over traditional noodles. Let’s just say if the squash is a Ferrari 488, the flour noodle is a 78 Ford Pinto. More taste, way more nutrition, much lower calories. It’s a winner by a first round knock out. Pair the noodles with my cauliflower garlic bread, and you can load your plate up for a 1/3 of the calories:
Here’s a link for the recipe for the garlic bread.
One other great thing about this dish. Everyone remembers the famous scene in The Goodfellas where Joe Pesci has his “I’m funny how?” scene. I, however, always remember a scene where all these Italian guys are cooking dinner, and instead of dicing the garlic into tiny bits, they used a razor blade to slice paper thin sheets of the cloves. That always fascinated me, but I never had a recipe where I needed that technique. Well, I do now, and it’s as good as I thought it would be.
Try this method with the roasted feta sauce below and you will never go back to splitting your squash lengthwise, dicing your garlic, or opening a box of dusty flour noodles again. Smashing Pumpkins may be right by saying “The world is a vampire” but even Dracula would eat this dinner, sliced garlic and all.
Split Spaghetti Squash with roasted feta sauce
Ingredients:
1 large Spaghetti Squash or 2 small ones
1 block solid feta cheese
Fresh basil
1 carton cherry tomatoes
1 shallot sliced thin
3 garlic cloves sliced thin
1 carton shiitake mushrooms
4 tsps olive oil plus 2 tbsp, divided
Sea salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes to taste
4 chicken breasts, sliced into cutlets (optional)
Zest of one lemon
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut your squash sideways down the middle and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Using that same spoon, run olive oil on the cut squash and season with sea salt and pepper. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake cut side down for 45 minutes:
When it’s done baking, just pull it from the oven and leave it facing down on the sheet. It will stay hot and continue to cook on its own while you make the rest of the food. Bump the heat up on the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare all your veggies and your feta cheese:
Put two tbsp of olive oil in an ovenproof dish and toss in all the veggies except the basil leaves. Add the lemon zest, stirring to coat. Season with sea salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Cut the feta cheese block in half and push in to sit on the bottom:
Bake for 25 minutes. While that is in the oven, cook your chicken breasts in a cast iron skillet, 4 to 5 minutes per side or until done, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Cover with foil to rest while the sauce bakes:
When 25 minutes is up, toss in the basil leaves and stir to mix in the now melted feta cheese. Carefully pop the tomatoes to mix into the sauce, but beware, they are like little hand grenades of clothes staining destruction, so go easy:
Use a fork to run along the shell of the squash, pulling the noodles free. Place them in a large bowl as you go:
Place a large helping of noodles on a plate, cover with sauce, and top with some chicken, if using. This dish is also great meat free. Serve with roasted broccoli and cauliflower garlic bread:
See the list of all the Shirtless Chef recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.