Spaghetti and Meatballs, Hold the Spaghetti
Spaghetti squash just came in at the stand, and the ones this year are big — most of them run well past four pounds. If your only experience with spaghetti squash is a pile of pale strands with butter on them, this one is for you. The name is not a gimmick. Treat it like pasta — cook it like pasta, sauce it like pasta — and it holds its own under a plate of meatballs.
Cut it crosswise, not lengthwise
Everybody halves a spaghetti squash from stem to tip, and everybody gets short strands. The strands actually run in circles around the squash, not end to end — so cut it crosswise into two or three thick rings and you get the longest noodles the squash has in it. Use a sharp, heavy knife and a steady board; if it fights you, five minutes in a 350°F oven softens the skin enough to cut safely.
Scoop the seeds out of the rings, rub them with a little oil and salt, and set them on a sheet pan. 400°F, 30 to 35 minutes. Here is the part that matters: pull them while the strands still have some bite. A fork should go through with a little resistance left. Overcooking is how spaghetti squash ends up wet and sad — we are cooking pasta here, and pasta comes out al dente.
The meatballs
Nothing fancy: a pound of ground pork and beef, one egg, half a cup of breadcrumbs, one clove of garlic grated fine, half a small onion grated right into the bowl, a teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix with your hands just until it comes together — overworked meatballs bounce. Roll them a little smaller than a golf ball and brown them hard in a skillet. Do not worry about cooking them through; they finish in the sauce.
The sauce
Use the red sauce your house already believes in. Ours is a quart of crushed tomatoes simmered with onion, garlic, and a little basil until it stops tasting raw, about 20 minutes. Drop the browned meatballs in and let it all go low and slow another 15 while the squash roasts.
The trick that makes it work
When the rings are cool enough to handle, run a fork around them and pull the strands into a colander. Salt them, toss, and let them sit 10 minutes over the sink. Squash is mostly water, and this is where it leaves. Then — same as you would finish real pasta — tip the strands straight into the simmering sauce and toss for the last minute or two so they take the sauce on instead of sitting under it. That is the whole secret. Strands that drained and finished in the pan twirl on a fork and taste like dinner; strands that went straight from oven to plate taste like a vegetable that got rained on.
Plate it, meatballs on top, and put the parmesan where people can reach it. One big squash does the whole table with lunch left over.
From the farm
Spaghetti squash is at the stand now — $5.50 each, one flat price. The grocery store charges by the pound; ours are big enough that you come out well ahead. For the meatballs, our pork and beef mix is what we use — message us for pricing — and the egg comes from our hens, $3 a dozen. German hardneck garlic ($2.25) and sweet onions ($2) round it out. Free delivery in Norwich and Syracuse; Binghamton area free over $20.
Photo: Piersey, Flickr, CC BY 4.0.
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