The Art of Beer Cooking: Spaghetti Squash

It’s been my goal recently to expand my horizons and try vegetables I’ve never had before. One such veggie that has intrigued me but I’ve never tackled is the spaghetti squash. Well, it finally happened this week and it turned out delicious! Many recipes I found for spaghetti squash literally treat it like pasta with a traditional tomato sauce. To infuse beer into this dish, I baked the spaghetti squash with beer and also used it in a simple sauce.

First order of business is to tackle the squash. From my research there are 2 ways you can do this. Cook it whole, which takes a lot longer but easier to handle after or cut it in half before cooking. I decided to cut it first so I could really get that nice beer flavor in every bite. Cut the squash in half, length wise, and scoop out the seeds. Put the cut sides down in a baking dish and add 1 cup beer to the bottom of the dish. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until it’s nice and tender. Let sit until cool enough to handle and start scraping out the inside with a fork. It really starts to look like spaghetti!

To make it a complete meal I served it with a simple tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. Yum!

Ingredients

• Spaghetti squash
• 2 cups beer (1 for squash, 1 for sauce)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 cans puree tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Follow directions above for cooking the spaghetti squash.

In a large pot heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until translucent. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, beer, basil and oregano. If you want a little heat add some red pepper flakes. Let simmer without lid for about an hour. This will let the moisture evaporate and condense the sauce to make all the flavors stand out.