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.