Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Shortcut Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

This is a super quick, super healthy, and super delicious meal. Although I'm a big fan of the ground beef and sausage combination, you can use whatever ground meat you have on hand. The 3/4 pound of each was a nice quantity for the amount of sauce, plus I used the remaining meat to make meatballs for our kids. If you want to use a full pound of each, just add a little more sauce. You can also add onion, garlic, and any additional spices to doctor up the sauce. I think Gabriel's Puttanesca sauce is perfect the way it is, so I left well enough alone.


Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
3/4 pound bulk Italian sausage
3/4 pound grass-fed ground beef
26 ounce jar of your favorite natural pasta sauce (I used Gabriel's All Natural Puttanesca Sauce.)
2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts, optional

Preparation
  1. Cook meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add pasta sauce and simmer for 15-30 minutes. (This can be shorter if you are in a hurry.)
  2. While meat cooks, pierce the squash several times with a fork or sharp knife, being sure to pierce all the way through to the middle.
  3. Microwave whole squash at 70 percent power for 15 minutes. Check to see if skin is softened, then continue to microwave in 5 minute increments until skin is very soft and pliable.NOTE: Be sure NOT to cook on full power AND that you pierce the squash all the way through, otherwise, you may end up with a squash explosion in your microwave.
  4. Remove squash from microwave and let it rest for 5-10 minutes to let it finish steaming. 
  5. Cut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out and discard the seeds. Scrape squash "noodles" from skin into a bowl and keep warm.
  6. To serve, divide spaghetti squash evenly among four bowls. Top with meat sauce. Garnish with pine nuts, if desired.

6 comments:

  1. Super delicious and quick as promised. My gf and I had never had spaghetti squash before and we loved it!

    The only thing we did differently is we sautéed a finely chopped onion before browning the meat for some extra flavour.

    Will definitely be adding this recipe to my favs.

    I had posted this before as Anon with the Almond Bites, but again, love the site and thanks for sharing these recipes and your meal plans Pam!

    Cheers
    Brad

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  2. Hi, Brad! Glad you gave the spaghetti squash a try. It is such a nice sub for pasta. This is the meal I make when I don't feel like cooking. I appreciate your nice comments and am so happy you like Paleo Table!! Thanks for letting me know!

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  3. Amazing, I made yesterday and it was delicious. I did not miss the spaghetti. I used organic spaghetti from Trader Joes and it was delicious. I will make again.

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    1. So glad you liked it, Denise! We eat this pretty frequently since it's so easy and quick. I appreciate the note!

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  4. How would you cook the spaghetti squash if you don't have a microwave? Thank you!

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    1. Hi! You can put the pierced squash in a baking dish and bake for about an hour at 375 degrees F. Or you can try it in a crockpot with 1 cup of water. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. The crock pot method is new to me, so if you use that method, let me know how it turns out! Thanks!

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