Extraordinary Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti and meatballs…one of the most ordinary and comforting dinners in the nuclear American household. Being quite the fan of this universal dinner during my childhood as well, I decided I wanted to take a new approach at this meal in an extraordinary

 way.  How did I do it? Well like usual, I used local organic vegetables and exciting additions and replacements with ingredients I had just laying around in my kitchen. This required me to enter territory I had never explored.

Last weekend at my local farmer’s market at the Calle Real Marketplace in Goleta, I came across something I had never seen before. I have heard of this remarkable organic creation, but never had I tried, cooked with, or seen one! It was the highly praised spaghetti squash! There it was, among so many other squash assortments, a

t a supposed peak season, large and healthy, and only 99 cents a pound. I felt that my pantry was in great need of this new squash variety. Without any idea of what I wanted to do with it, I bought it and decided would decide what to do with it eventually.

That day came sooner than expected, as I looked up how to cook spaghetti squash that same evening. Thus my quest on creating an extraordinary plate of spaghetti and meatballs began.

Ingredients:

1 Spaghetti Squash

Favorite tomato sauce

1 Onion

A few large carrots

Ground salmon meat (or salmon burgers/patties)

Fresh Spinach

1 Whole garlic

Your choice of other varieties of zucchini/squash to gril

l

Parmesan Cheese

So how do I cook this giant squash?

Well that is precisely what I wondered when I first

 saw the thing. My curiosity couldn’t wait, which is probably why I cooked it so soon. It is a little bit of a process, but you will not be disappointed with the rich taste and exciting texture of the spaghetti squash!

For Squash:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Poke a few holes in the spaghetti squash and but in a large cake pan  with about 1/2in of water at bottom. Let the Spagh

etti squash bake for 45 minutes to an hour. If squash is soft, it is ready! While the squash is cooking, cut the garlic half, pour a little olive oil within the half mark, wrap in foil, and let it sit in the hot oven with squash for about 30-40 minutes.

Once out of the oven you may want to let it cool for a few minutes or else you will be dealing with one hot squash. Cut the squash in half at the equator. Y

ou probably will only need to use half of the squash tonight, but it is good to take the inside ‘meat’ out and store in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Now is the fun part. After removing the pulp and seeds, you will see a striated texture within the squash. Take a fork and start scooping out and you will find that a spaghetti-like substance starts coming out! Go ahead and taste for yourself, it is pretty much identical the pasta we eat on Italian night! After removing all of the substance, let it sit and start the sauté process with the remaining ingredients.

For the sauce/everything else:

Chop your onion into rings, or dice, which ever you prefer eating or cooking with. Keep in mind that we are caramelizing these onions, so it is easier to keep them in a somewhat circle shape. I like to cut the circles in half. Heat a pan on high, drizzle some olive oil to coat the pan with a thin layer and lay the onions on. Sprinkle salt, pepper, or your favorite vegetable seasoning. After a few minutes reduce heat a little. Try not to

 flip the onions around too much so that they can caramelize. Move the onions to one half of the pan and place the salmon patties on other half. Squeeze the cooked garlic over the onions. You don’t have to use the whole garlic. To store the rest, just wrap the foil around it and store in refrigerator. Let these slow cook and flip when sides turn brown. Keep an eye on those onions, don’t let them burn or over-cook.

            While onions and salmon cook, chop your carrots into thin slices and cook with a little water in microwave or steamer until soft. Also, start slicing y

our extra zucchini. Once the salmon patties are almost cooked, remove them and throw on the carrots and let them brown. Also place the zucchini on the pan wherever you have room. Sprinkle seasoning on them as well. You make have to add more olive oil at this point to keep the moister going.  Cut the salmon patties into small pieces. Once everything has slightly browned, throw the salmon on with the fresh spinach. Pour about half of a cup of tomato sauce in the mixture as well. Remember we are working on medium heat now. Let everything simmer together and the spinach absorb the liquid.

            Arrange a generous portion of the spaghetti squash onto plates. (About the amount you would serve yourself if it were real spaghetti.) You may add more sauce to your plate depending on you desire. I added a little extra. Now, place the sauté mixture on top of the spaghetti squash. I added a few fresh tomato slices and sprinkled Parmesan cheese.

            You now have quite an extraordinary plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Funny thing is there is no actual spaghetti or red meat in this dish, but I gotta say I found this more satisfying and extremely flavorful.  I actually didn’t realize how funny this dish was until my good friend Meredith pointed it out to me. “You know that is the rarest plate of spaghetti I have ever heard of Yvette.”

Enjoy!