Spaghetti Pie

If you happened to have visited this little kitchen in the early days, you were subjected to dark and yellowy pics and you were assaulted by too many exclamation points. I still have a ways to go on my photography and I'm still excited about food... however, I've picked up a trick or two to make this food look as good as it tastes, and I've found other ways to express my enthusiasm.


Those early days were packed with some of my favorite recipes and my go to week night meals, but if I was surfing the web, this sad-looking photograph of spaghetti pie would not have caught my eye.


So, here we are giving it a little upgrade. It's just too good and too easy to be left behind.

While I have included a recipe below, the greatness of this dish can be found in the adaptability of whatever you have on hand.  Lets talk about what you need...

//pasta//

 

//eggs//

 

//cheese//

 

//sauce//

Now lets talk about how easy it is to mix it up. Do you only have a 1/2 pound of pasta? Use a smaller dish and less egg. Want to make it a bit healthier?  Use whole wheat pasta.  Have the dregs of 4 different kinds of cheese in your fridge? Throw them in.

Heck, I've used leftover over fusili pasta and occasionally gotten really crazy and added leftover ground meat to the sauce.  Now lets talk about the major bonus that's hiding in this dish.  Leftovers!  Yep, this is one of those little numbers that tastes great a day or two later.  And this new mom is desperately in search of recipes that can do double duty for lunch or dinner the next night.  Alright, that's all for now... and look, I only used one exclamation mark! (Okay, two exclamation marks).  Yes, leftovers that taste great are that exciting.  From my little kitchen to yours... Enjoy.

I'm not into doing dishes and I suspect it's not your thing either.  A little shortcut... I crack the eggs directly into the dish to scramble them. 
 
Once you get them nice and beaten, toss all of the spaghetti into the egg and make sure it gets spread evenly. 
 

Ready for the oven...

 

Oooh lala... nice and bubbly and screaming for sauce. 

Spaghetti Pie

Recipe: adapted from my mother in law

Servings: 6 (makes great leftovers)

Categories: main, quick and easy, feeding mr. hungry

Recipe Notes

A note about pasta: I seriously make this about once a week and I occasionally use whole wheat spaghetti to make it a little healthier.  I have also used everything from capellini to fettucine and have had the same tasty results. 

A note about cheese: You might be wondering why I have the words “thickly shredded” next to the cheese. You know when you are buying shredded cheese and some is pencil thin while other varieties are nice and chunky… like what it would look like if you shredded it yourself?  I prefer the thick shreds for this dish.  But just like most of the other ingredients, go with what you have and by no means will it be terrible if you like that thinly shredded variety.  A mix of Italian cheeses also works really well for the topping.

A note about sauce:  My absolute favorite canned tomato sauce is Bertolli’s Olive Oil and Garlic.  Not just any Bertolli’s, but specifically the olive oil and garlic seems to be the freshest tasting sauce I’ve found.  I could drink the stuff.

Ingredients

1 lb spaghetti

3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

3 cups mozzarella or monterey jack cheese, thickly shredded
   (or a blend of Italian cheeses)

2 to 3 cups of your favorite store bought tomato sauce (this is my absolute favorite)

Step by Step

Preheat to 350 degrees.  If not using leftover pasta, cook spaghetti according to package.  Drain and allow to cool completely. Coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Dump cooled spaghetti into pan.  Crack eggs in a corner of the dish and beat with a fork.  Mix egg, salt and parmesan cheese into the pasta until thoroughly combined.

Sprinkle 3 cups of cheese on top of spaghetti mixture.  Bake for 35 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and slightly browned. 

When ready to serve, heat tomato sauce on the stove over medium heat.  Pour sauce over slices of spaghetti pie and serve.