Spaghetti Squash and Tomato Sauce Casserole

It is about to start pouring rain here, so I thought I'd get a quick post in beforehand - so I can sit and look out the window.  I LOVE watching thunderstorms.

This is a recipe that I prepared about a month ago, shortly after harvesting my first of the very few spaghetti squash I've gotten from my garden.  It's quite similar to a recipe I shared last year for a spaghetti squash and swiss chard casserole.  Darn tasty!

Ingredients:
4 pound spaghetti squash, baked
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
3-4 cups tomato sauce
Cheese for topping

After baking the squash (cut in half, remove seeds, bake at 400 degrees C until tender), use a fork to pull into spaghetti-like strands.  Mix with the ricotta, egg and season with salt.











Top with your favourite tomato sauce.  I made a quickie sauce with onions, garlic and a can of tomatoes (because when I made this last month I didn't have enough tomatoes from my plants!!).  Cover with sliced or grated cheddar or mozzarella.


 

Bake the whole thing for about 30-40 minutes until the sauce and cheese is all bubbly goodness.

August Update on Cucurbits: Part One

I have had a very rough go this year with the pumpkins and squash (both winter and summer).  First, I rushed into planting them too early in May during a wonderful warm spell then got hit with a late frost.  I covered all of the plants during the frost and I managed to save 2/3 of what I had planted (which was quite a lot).  Then I got a nasty infestation of cucumber beetles which managed to take down quite a few of the already weak plants.  The beetles mostly infected the summer squash, but also many of the pumpkins.

Several weeks of neem oil treatment and some manual picking of the bugs off the plants has made a considerable difference.  I still see cucumber beetles on some of the plants but those plants that survived seem to be strong enough and large enough to handle it (but I'll keep doing the neem oil treatments and pick off bugs when I see them).  I also have a lot of squash bugs but they don't seem to do as much damage.

I lost almost all of the pumpkin plants, and the watermelon and Hale's melon plants are growing but I've seen no fruit forming yet and are likely too small to produce anything in the short growing season I have here.  So here is a summary of what I have left.

crazy crowded 3 sisters garden

In the three sisters garden space (NW of my yard), I planted the Marina di Chiogga, as well as spaghetti, butternut and acorn squash.  There is no evidence of acorn anywhere in this garden.  I have one spaghetti squash almost ready to harvest ... a good thing as it started much higher up on a stalk of corn and has slowly been dropping further towards the ground.  I probably should have managed the vines better so they didn't go up the corn.

I have two very different looking Marina di Chiogga - one seems close to harvest but I've never grown these before so I'll have to do some research.

I have two that have this lighter colouring

And finally some evidence of butternut.  I really struggled with germination and had several to plant but I think I lost most of them in the frost.  Not sure if this one will have time to get to full size but I'll take what I can get.

If it is not obvious, I'll point out that I seem to have, at best, one or two squash per plant.  A pretty crappy yield rate but at least I'm getting something!!

NE space

The next garden (NE of my yard) was also dedicated to Cucurbits including more spaghetti squash, acorn squash as well as the watermelon and Hale's melon that I previously mentioned.  Due to the large numbers of squash bugs that I had last year, I decided to put LOTS of marigolds and nasturtiums with the squash in this area in order to attract them away from the veggie plants. I may have overdone it as I planted dozens of them and they are all getting quite large and threatening to overtake the garden space (but are working very well at attracting the bugs).

Marigolds down centre, not yet in bloom
but covered in squash bugs

One (or two?) of several nasturtium!

The two spaghetti squash harvested this past Monday (one 5-pounder!) came from this area (probably the same plant), and I have another one growing here.  That little yellow flower behind it is from the watermelon plant.

I also have two acorn squash.

And then there is this mystery squash which I haven't quite figured out what it is yet.

And that's the first part covering my two "dug" gardens containing squash. Stay tuned for part two covering the hay bale plants!

Harvest Monday: January 26, 2015

It will be several months before there will be any new harvests for me, even with the new greenhouse - this morning's weather was -27 degrees Celsius (at 6:20am) with "freezing fog" - hmm, doesn't sound good. 

But I continue to enjoy last season's harvest including my last butternut squash, my last spaghetti squash and almost the last of the borlotti beans. 

This past week I made a version of my butternut squash mac 'n cheese (slightly modified to suit the ingredients I had on hand).  And a week or two ago I made a casserole with spaghetti squash (along with the "shredded" cooked squash, I mixed in some goat cheese and one egg, then topped with parmesan and baked in the oven).

And I made some refried beans for a tex-mex meal using borlotti beans that I had in the freezer (I wasn't sure if I had dried them well enough to store, so I froze them to be safe).  Refried beans can be made with just about any bean but these were all I had available.  Saute onion and garlic, then add chili powder and salt; add in the pre-soaked and cooked beans plus some veggie or chicken stock; cook together and mash into a delicious side dish. 

I also pulled out the one and only bag of rhubarb I had from last year with some grand plans.  I had very little rhubarb as it was only the second year for my rhubarb plants so I was careful not to harvest too much to let the plant focus on rooting and growth.  Unfortunately, I got distracted while roasting the rhubarb and it ended up dried out and inedible.  Sigh ...

Check out Daphne's Dandelions on Harvest Monday to see what other gardeners are doing with last year's harvests (or what they are currently harvesting for those in the more southerly climes).

Spaghetti Squash and Swiss Chard Casserole

A delicious fall casserole!

Ingredients:
4 cups spaghetti squash
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups (loose packed) swiss chard, chopped
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 egg
Cheese for top (aged cheddar, mozzarella)

Cut spaghetti squash in half - bake at 350 degrees F (cut side face down with some water in the pan) until tender - about 30 minutes.  Cool enough that it can be easily handled.  Using a fork, pull the strands of "spaghetti" into a bowl.





Saute onion and garlic in some olive oil until softened.  Add chard and cook until wilted.  Mix the spaghetti squash into the chard mixture and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Beat an egg in a large bowl then add ricotta.  Stir together then mix with squash/chard mixture.

Pour into a casserole dish.  Top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes until top has browned and casserole has puffed up.

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash (Part 2) with Roasted Peppers, Herbs, Olives and Goat Cheese

I'm still loving the spaghetti squash. In fact, I've removed some of the seeds to save for the garden next year.  I think they should grow properly (unlike tomatoes which really need to come from an heirloom variety).  If anyone thinks these won't work, let me know and I'll chuck them.  Otherwise, I hope to be growing some of my own spaghetti squash next season.

Here is a another tasty way to serve this squash.  The "Part 1" recipe (spaghetti squash with pesto and shrimp) involves removing the strands of "spaghetti" and tossing them with other ingredients.  This version is a stuffed variety but there are still spaghetti-like strands when eating.

This is one of those "throw whatever you have in the fridge together" type of situations where you can add in any of your favourite veggies.  I went with one of my favourite combos of red onion, black olives, roasted peppers and goat cheese in a tomato sauce.  But next time maybe sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts.  Or feta cheese or even ricotta instead of the goat cheese.  Spinach?  Mmmm, wish I'd thought of that earlier.

Bake the squash as usual: cut in half, remove seeds, bake cut face down on a baking tray at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.  

In the meantime, prepare your filling.  Saute together in a small amount of olive oil:

1/2 red onion, sliced
2-3 Tbsp roasted red peppers, chopped
Pitted and sliced black olives

Add 1 1/2 cups whole tomatoes or tomato sauce, along with some leaves of fresh thyme or rosemary.  Cook about 10 minutes together.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Add about 4-6 oz goat cheese, then season to taste.

When squash is ready, place cut side up on baking tray.  Ladle filling into both sides of the squash.  Top with additional cheese (grated parmesan, cheddar or mozzarella).  And I had some garlic-butter panko crumbs in the freezer so I threw some on top as well.  Bake again just enough to heat through the filling and brown the cheese on top (maybe 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees F).