Spaghetti Squash Pie

Name: Spaghetti Squash Pie
Prep time: 1 h 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 2 h 10 min
Cuisine: Comfort Food
Ingredients: Butter, oil, or cooking spray for the pan; 1 large or 2 smaller spaghetti squash (4 to 5 lbs.); Kosher or sea salt; 2 1/2 T olive oil; 1 large zucchini; ½ C finely grated parmesan cheese (1 1/2 oz.); 2 – 2 1/2 C coarsely grated mozzarella or fontina cheese (1/2 lb.); 3 C chunky and/or thick marinara sauce (such as mushroom marinara); ½ medium onion, finely chopped; 1 C ricotta cheese; 3 eggs (2 works if you’re trying to cut back); Ground black pepper; Fresh basil (optional)

October 24, 2014 · Tessa · 112 Comments

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

If you love spaghetti squash pie, be sure to check out the newest NCK cheesy pie recipe…

Cheddar sweet corn pie!

Someone help me–I just can’t stop with the comfort food makeovers! Maybe I should rename this blog “comfort classic makeovers”. Catchy.

Did anyone else grow up with spaghetti pie? Because the Olson household was all about it. When I saw that Lindsay, a fellow Minnesotan (and rock star food blogger) about my age, posted a spaghetti pie recipe on Pinch of Yum this summer, I was like, “It’s a Minnesota thing!” Because you know east coast Italians would not defile their spaghetti this way. She responded that she actually didn’t grow up with it, but I think it still proves that spaghetti pie runs in every hot dish-loving Minnesotan’s blood.

It starts in a pie plate (obviously), which is filled with heaps of spaghetti noodles mixed with egg and cheese and sour cream, followed by a thick layer of meaty red sauce, then topped with shredded mozzarella cheese (Mom, correct me if I got anything wrong). The egg mixture binds the noodles together into a dense baked spaghetti brick kind of thing, but in the best way possible. You have to taste it to believe it, because every word I’m coming up with to write about it sounds less than appetizing. Firm? Chewy? No. Basically it means you get more spaghetti and a perfect balance of noodles and sauce in every bite. Then serve it up alongside an oven-warmed, butter-soaked loaf of garlic bread and you have a comfort food dinner that dreams are made of.

Buttttttt a certain Olson family kind of doesn’t eat processed wheat anymore, which poses a major roadblock between me, spaghetti pie, half a loaf of garlic bread (just being honest), and a glass of red wine. Consistent with my food philosophy, though, I don’t buy that cleaning up your nutrition has to mean a boring piece of chicken (which can, in fact, also be quite dangerous for your health) and a side of unsalted, blanched broccoli for dinner. Most of the time, it should mean cooking with whole food, unprocessed ingredients. Like squash, as opposed to mass manufactured spaghetti noodles. So when I was gifted a spaghetti squash at my parents house this summer, it was like a lightning bolt hit me. People are cray for pretending spaghetti squash strands are real noodles, so why haven’t I seen a spaghetti squash pie recipe yet???

Probably because it isn’t quite as simple as just swapping out the noodles and swapping in spaghetti squash. The first experimentation with the pie was satisfactory. It led to me creating my mushroom marinara recipe (fresh produce = kitchen creativity), so flavor-wise, the pie was awesome. My parents and I (only three people, mind you) nearly finished off a single deep dish pie, which I constructed in a huge glass BOWL because it wouldn’t fit in a pie plate. It was quite a sight to see, but I have zero pictures, because it took way longer to make when I did the sauce in the same day, and I was in a rush to get dinner on the table for two hungry cyclists. Aside from revamping the recipe to fit in a normal pie plate, there was a moisture issue–all the zucchini and spaghetti squash produced kind of wet pie, which never quite set up like the original firm recipe. Hehe. Or dense.

Turns out I could solve both of my problems by pressing out extra water from the squash after I cooked it, and I was amazed that a four pounder produced around 3/4 a cup of water! As you can imagine, that cuts down on the sheer mass of squash noodles and it helps the egg and ricotta stick to the noodles better, because they’re not slippery and wet. Think about trying to make scrambled eggs with equal parts water and egg. While I haven’t tried this, your egg probably isn’t going to set because you’re introducing too much moisture into the mostly fattiness of the eggs. Same concept. Throwing tons of water into the mix of “noodles” and fat throws the expected results.

Here we are five paragraphs in, and I’m still talking about the spaghetti pie. Perfect, gluten-free, noodle-free, meat-free (if you like) spaghetti pie. On trial number two, there was zero doubt that it worked. I don’t think Steve or I came up for air until after we cleaned our plates on the first serving, and if you’re a home cook to any extent, you know silence is the ultimate praise.
Here’s the recipe for my mushroom marinara, which is awesome in this pie!
More recipes like spaghetti squash pie:

Note: The recipe was updated in January 2016 to fine tune the ingredient quantities and make the recipe (hopefully) easier to follow. The only major changes are slightly more squash, so the pie easily serves 6, and an additional egg for a firmer pie. If you’re trying to watch your egg intake, two eggs will work just fine!