Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil

I had a spaghetti squash hanging out in my fridge for weeks after buying it at the farmers' market on a whim one day. I'm ever eager to find stuff-I've-never-tried. Imagine my surprise when the separate strands peeled away like so many long noodles. (After boiling it in a too-small-for-it sauce pan and turning it repeatedly and impatiently.)

The Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil (page 383) is meant as a side dish, but if you cook it all up just for yourself, it makes a fine dinner, too. And simple to boot. And, as you can see, I used those mini tomatoes; which made it all the more fun. Imagine little bursts of tart and sweet surprising your taste buds every now and again. It was delightfully savory and excitingly hilarious to eat. Strands of squash! How cool is that!

- - Ulpia, ever delighted by strange squashes - -

Sesame-Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

I have loved spaghetti squash since I was very little. I love it prepared all different ways. However, I think that Sesame-Stuffed Spaghetti Squash {page 345} is my new favorite way to serve it.

The "spaghetti" is mixed with lightly stir-fried vegetables and a delicious sesame tahini sauce, then piled back into the shell and baked until toasty all the way through. Then the halves are topped with more tahini sauce and black sesame seeds.

I am not the biggest fan of tahini, but I figured I would like just about anything if it involved spaghetti squash, and I was right! This was delicious, really flavorful and down-right good. The Ninjahusband and I both loved it, and ate all of it in no time flat.

This brings me to my only gripe with this recipe: it definitely does NOT serve 4, especially as a main dish. I'm not a big eater, but the Ninjahusband is, and it barely fed both of us. In fact, we were still hungry afterward.

So, make it, but make some other side dishes to go with it.

-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl