Photo: Greta Blumajerová
Photo: Greta Blumajerová
Are you eyeing spaghetti squash in the store, but don’t know how to make it? Its preparation is totally easy – just cut it in half, bake it and then just enjoy the vegetable “spaghetti” without a gram of flour!
Article
In recent years, you can meet spaghetti squash more and more often here. If you hesitated until now because you didn’t know how to process it, it’s time to change that! After heat treatment, its pulp becomes delicious spaghetti-like strips, which you can add to your favorite sauce or try our variant with garlic and spinach. You can also pre-bake the pumpkin (after all, it takes around 40 minutes) and store it in the fridge for at least two days.
Spaghetti pumpkin with garlic cheese sauce
For 4 smaller portions you need:
- 1 spaghetti squash
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 chili pepper (can be omitted)
- ¼ cup cooking cream
- 150 g of fresh or 200 g of frozen spinach
- a handful of Parmesan cheese (or other hard cheese, such as Gran Moravia or Grana Padano)
- 1 mozzarella or 100 g of Gouda
Procedure
01.
Heat the oven to 200 °C. Cut the pumpkin in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, oil all sides, salt the inside and place cut side down on a lined baking sheet baking paper. Bake for about 40 minutes until soft. Let it cool down a bit and use a fork to scrape the “spaghetti” from the pulp, which will form on its own. You can transfer them to a bowl or, like me, leave them directly in the skin.
02.
While the pumpkin is baking, prepare your favorite spaghetti sauce or try a simple garlic sauce: saute the chopped garlic and chili in a little oil for less than half a minute, add the chopped spinach (for easier preparation, pour boiling water over it, squeeze it and then add it to the sauce), cover with cream, season with salt and pepper and simmer until soft. Stir in the Parmesan cheese (you can thicken it with a spoonful of fresh cream cheese or cream cheese) and divide into pumpkin spaghetti. Sprinkle with grated mozzarella and bake for a while longer.
Photo: Greta Blumajerová
After baking, the pulp turns into “spaghetti”, which you can easily scrape with a forkPhoto: Greta Blumajerová
Tip: For a richer meal, add baked chicken or diced ham to the sauce. And those who prefer stronger flavors can also use fresh herbs such as oregano, basil or thyme.
Pumpkin, the queen of autumn cuisine
Pumpkins are perhaps impossible to avoid. What to cook or bake from them so that the whole family can enjoy them?
