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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Melanie's Non-traditional Spaghetti Pie

The first few times I ate spaghetti pie I didn't like it. It was served just slightly cooler than room temperature and I don't like my pasta and italian cheeses that way. It was also bland so I never gave it much thought.

A few years ago a friend had spaghetti pie for me for lunch but in a new format, it was hot and delicious! It opened my eyes to the fact that one could make this pie in many different ways, not the traditional family recipe.

Last year I made this for Easter, coming up with my own recipe, it almost started a family feud.

Here's how I made mine today. The nice thing is you can change the ingredients around based on what you have in your house or what you prefer.

I had a frying pan on the stove with sweet italian sausage meat (a 1 lb package or 6 sausage). The sausage casing is taken off so I was left with seasoned pork meat and I added a small finely cut onion.

In a second pot I put on water to boil and then added two boxes of spaghetti (1 lb. boxes here). I ended up using about 3/4 of that so maybe 1 and 1 half boxes?

While everything was cooking I beat two eggs into a Large mixing bowl.
Then I added two pounds of ricotta cheese (kind of like cottage cheese but it's an italian cheese).
Next comes 1/2 pound of grated mozzarella cheese.
One heaping handful of parmesan cheese (Locatelli is another good cheese for this)
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic powder to taste (I like lots of pepper and garlic for a bit of kick).

Drain the sausage and onions and add them to your cheesy mixture.

Drain your spaghetti and add them to everything. Mix well.

Today I put it in a lasagna pan but many times I will use a round dish like a deep dish pie pan. I just wanted enough for left overs so I made a large quantity. You could make this with only 1 lb. of spaghetti but not cut the cheese by that much. It's all by feel.

When my friend served it, she made it in individual muffin tins so we each had our own portion.
It looked so classy!

Other times in the past I've used diced prosciutto ham instead of the sausage an onions. Just be careful and add less salt then as prosciutto is already a salt cured ham. I've also seen recipes with salami in them but that doesn't interest me as much.

What's nice is you can make this in advance, put it in your pan, put the pan in the fridge and then heat it up when you're ready.

I baked my in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, when the top got toasty brown and the cheese was bubbling, then I knew it was done.

Wish I knew how to convert this into metrics for everybody. My mom is an awesome cook and she never measures and changes her ingredients each time so I learned the same way and I just add bits and pieces. Things come out differently every time but tonight my husband announced (quite loudly) "mmm, this is the BEST spaghetti pie I've ever had!". His mom didn't eat much of her portion but Calie the wonder-doodle didn't mind polishing it off and even licked the plate afterwards.

10 comments:

Robin's Nesting Place said...

I cook this way too and on a lot of things I just make up as I go along, changing up the spices as the mood or taste strikes.

tina said...

looks delicious. i will have to try this recipe and am writing it down for just that reason!

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute--there is no tomato sauce in it! Woo hoo--I might even like this one. I like the idea of the muffin cup servings. I fix a lot of multiple ingredient stuff in pie form;) I just throw it all in and hope for the best. Thanks for sharing and it just might be the recipe I fix the first week in my new home.

Melanie Chopay said...

Robin, sometimes I think people assume that I just don't want to share my recipe. My in laws truly don't understand the concept of cooking without measuring. When it comes to baking though, then I measure!

tina, when you make it, make some nice warm garlic bread too. It would be such a nice dinner with just a salad on the side.

anna, nope, no tomato sauce! I get many recipes from www.recipezaar.com but when I looked there for this recipe they all had tomatoes in the pie. None of the Italian places around here use tomato sauce in this.

Unknown said...

MMM. It looks yummy. I'll have to try it.

The nice thing about recipes is that you don't need to follow any recipe exactly. I'm always changing things to make it the way my family would eat it. They're pretty picky!

kari and kijsa said...

Have a wonderful Easter Sunday!

blessings,
kari & kijsa

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Ok .. it looks and sounds very good .. but ... I'm stuck in the rut about PIE being sweet and a desert melanie .. darn !!! LOL
Joy

Anonymous said...

Yummy, cheese!

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I make a version of this spaghetti pie too. During late summer when spaghetti squash is available I use that instead of the spaghetti noodles. It gives it a different but delicious wang.

Esther Montgomery said...

Do you ever grow spaghetti marrows?

(Instead of slicing them, or whatever, you pull the cooked flesh out in long strands - just like spaghetti. It's not as watery as the usual kind of marrow and it tastes good.)

Esther