If ever you needed an excuse to make the whole house smell insanely good, then by all means, cook one of these bad boys up. I started making this recipe several years ago after watching PartyLine with the Hearty Boys on Food Network. Instead of following their recipe completely, I tweaked it up and have made it my own way ever since. Now I don't even use a recipe card, just throw everything together and wait for the smell to permeate the house. Here's the way I make it:
Ingredients
2 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
Onion, chopped fine
Several cloves of garlic, chopped or minced (I usually use 5 or 6 cloves...I love garlic)
Can of mushrooms, drained
Can of olives, drained and chopped
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of heavy cream
2 eggs
8 oz. mozzerella, shredded
8 oz. fontina, shredded
Several good shakes of parmesan
Several good shakes of dried basil
Little bit of salt for taste
3/4 pound of spaghetti (I love Barilla)
Set your oven to 350 degrees, and cook your spaghetti in salty water until al dente. While the pasta's a cookin and the oven's a heatin, get to work on the rest of your ingredients. In a medium sized saucepan, melt your butter and saute your onion and garlic with the dried basil until all is nice and translucent (or until your nose just can't take it anymore and you have to take a bite).
In a large bowl (we're talking big here, people), crack the eggs and add the heavy cream. Whisk what your mama gave ya. Once combined, add the drained mushrooms, drained olives, tomatoes, cooked garlic and onion, a little bit of salt for taste, cheeses AND spaghetti and toss, toss, toss. You really want to make sure everything is good and incorporated. In the same pan you cooked the garlic and onion in, add the tablespoon of olive oil and put it over medium high heat on the stove. Add the entire bowl of spaghetti and everything in it, and push down so that the top is level. Keep it on the stove for several minutes (I usually do 3 - 4), as this is going to make a the spaghetti on top a little crispy. Then, throw the whole thing in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.
After you take it out of the oven, you'll need to let it cool a bit (this is going to be really hard to do, as the smell is going to completely overpower you and set your spit glands into overdrive). I suggest picking an olive or two off of the sides to tide you over. Once it's cooled a little, you'll want to run a spatula around the outside and underneath of the spaghetti to loosen it all up. When it's good and loose, invert the pan onto a pretty plate and voila! Spaghetti pie in all of its glory.
My picture was taken before I inverted it out of the pan~ I couldn't be bothered to take any more pictures once it was ready to be eaten. The best part of this recipe is that you can add all kinds of fun things to it to make it your own. I've substituted with sundried tomatoes, added feta and pine nuts, switched up cheeses and even thrown in pieces of pepperoni. You just cannot lose with this recipe!!!! Enjoy!!!!
2 comments:
This sounds really great...I can smell it!! I make something kinda similar that I call Pizza Baked Spaghetti (though I haven't made it in a while)...I think I'll have to make it soon because you've made me crave it!! You could enter this in Presto Pasta Nights (see my post from today if you want to)!! YUMMY :)
You know, you're right!! My mom used to make Pizza Spaghetti, except the difference was that the noodles were layered on the bottom with all of the ingredients on the top. And she always made it in a rectangular glass pan so you could see all of the layers - YUM!
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