Know how you sometimes end up with a lot of broken spaghetti in your dry spaghetti box? Or with a couple boxes of mismatched broken up spaghetti, neither with quite enough for a full meal? Here's what you can do. There's nothing all that special about this recipe, but it did receive an unsolicited comment from Chris that it was really good. That means something.
Baked Spaghetti Mess
Gather enough dry spaghetti (from a couple different boxes, broken-up pieces, whatever) for four servings. (Or modify to as many servings as you want. Measurements don't have to be exact.)
Break up the spaghetti into short pieces (1-3 inches). Dump in the small broken-up pieces from the bottom of the box.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8x8" baking pan. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the spaghetti pieces until barely al dente. Drain the spaghetti. Take out your pasta sauce of choice.
Realize that the sauce is still mostly frozen.
Defrost sauce and continue with recipe. In the spaghetti cooking pot, combine spaghetti with as much sauce as you want. Stir in 1/2 C dairy or vegan mozzarella. Then stir in any add-ins. Garlic, sauteed peppers, sliced olives, or canned artichoke hearts might be good. If you're a meat eater, ground beef or pepperoni would be good too! I left mine plain because Celia doesn't go for the fancy stuff.
Transfer spaghetti mess to the baking pan. If you want to, sprinkle an additional 1/4 C cheese on top. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until it's nice and hot and the spaghetti starts getting a bit crispy on the top in places. It's easy and tasty, and you'll have used up those pesky, mostly empty pasta boxes in the pantry.
And your husband will probably like it.
See you Monday!
That's a great way to use up those broken spaghetti pieces! I like your idea of adding cheese, too!
ReplyDeleteI really like baked spaghetti! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHey, this might work for my picky but bottomless pit! He's just starting to accept things that are mixed - pasta with a bit of sauce. Honestly, hopefully the baby won't be as picky. Just makes life more complicated! And a thumbs up from your husband is always the best endorsement!
ReplyDeleteSarah, it takes a long time to post a comment to your blog. If you're interested go to settings > Comments > under comment form placement click on pop-up window and under word verification click no. It just requires the commenter to do a little less work. Sorry for sounding knowitall...I was recently told this. Can't say whether or not it's brought more comments though:(
ReplyDeleteI make this from time to time. When I was a kid, my mom would do this and layer it in the pan with cottage cheese and it was spaghetti lasagna. Took lots less time than regular lasagna and was really tasty.
ReplyDelete