Spaghetti Pie for #44

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love food. And my favourite food? Italian. Spaghetti, Lasagne, Ravioli, Cannelloni, Macaroni – you name it. If it’s pasta, I generally love it.

So is it any surprise that when I decided to choose my first recipe for #44 - Make something from every section of my Betty Crocker cookbook, that I picked a pasta dish?

I’ve actually been wanting to make Spaghetti Pie for a while now; ever since my boss/co-worker Sue made it a few months ago and brought it in for me to taste-test. It was so yummy. I printed off a recipe that I found on-line which sounded similar, and intended on making it last night. On a whim, I checked the Betty Crocker cookbook before starting to see if there was a Spaghetti Pie recipe in it, and bam – there it was, in the Casserole section! Perfect!

See, Lindsay gave me this Betty Crocker cookbook for my birthday last summer, and it is a fairly in-depth cookbook – it covers pretty much everything, from Appetizers & Beverages to Cookies & Candies, from Cakes & Pies to Eggs & Cheese, from Breads to Meats & Poultry...and everything in between. There are 17 sections. SEVENTEEN. If I hope to make something from each section before this 1001 day limit is up, I gotta get crackin’.

So I’m going to write out the Betty Crocker recipe for you here, and in brackets, I will tell you what I actually did – as I switched up some of the steps for the recipe I found on-line (based on how Sue made hers), and then I added a few little “Jill twists” to it – because I never follow a recipe exactly unless I’m super-sure I’m going to mess it up!

Spaghetti Pie

Prep: 10 mins, Cook: 16 mins, Bake: 45 mins, Stand: 5 mins, Makes six servings

Ingredients:

4 oz uncooked spaghetti (if you hold uncooked spaghetti together in a bundle, 4 oz is about as big around as the size of a quarter)
½ lb lean ground beef
1 small green bell pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
1 jar (14 oz) tomato pasta sauce (any variety)
1 teaspoon chilli powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 large eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (2 oz)

(In my twisted recipe – I also used 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese & 2 Tbsp margarine)

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Spray 10-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray. (whoops, forgot this part) Cook and drain spaghetti as directed on package.

2. Meanwhile, in skillet, cook beef, bell pepper, and onion over medium heat 8 – 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain. Stir in pasta sauce, chilli powder, salt & pepper. Cook 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened. (I had a container of homemade pasta meat sauce in my freezer, so I pretty much skipped this step, and just defrosted my sauce in the microwave).

3. Place spaghetti in pie plate; gently press on bottom and 1 inch up side of plate. (Despite Betty's handy instructions on how to measure spaghetti, I still ended up with too much, so my "crust" was kiiiinda thick. oops!)

4. In small bowl, stir eggs and cottage cheese until well mixed; spread evenly over spaghetti. (Here's where I went off the page and followed the other recipe instead. I actually mixed the 2 eggs, beaten, into the spaghetti noodles, along with 2 Tbsp of margarine and the parmesan cheese. I also tossed in a Tbsp of Epicure's Bruschetta herbs because the spaghetti looked so plain and sad. I left the cottage cheese as is.)

5. Spoon beef mixture over the cottage cheese. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

6. Bake 35-45 minutes or until center is set. (My other recipe called for 25-30 minutes, so that's all mine got). Let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

Let me tell you – it was deeeeelish! I added a slice of garlic bread to my meal by taking ½ a Tbsp of margarine and blending with Epicure's Herb & Garlic dip mix and spreading it on a piece of multi-grain bread, then sprinkling it with a bit of grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese and broiling it for 5 minutes.

As you can see, the first piece does not look like pie. I also probably did not wait for five minutes before hacking into it...

Next time, I would leave out the Brushetta herbs in the spaghetti, or not put so much, because the flavour was too strong. Otherwise, it was great, and I highly recommend it!