Leftover Spaghetti Pie

Madhuram — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:34:25 +0000

I was having a lot of leftover spaghetti and kidney beans sauce. We didn’t want to eat the same again and was looking for ideas. I saw a recipe for spaghetti pie in the Deceptively Delicious book. Like The Sneaky Chef, this book by Jessica Seinfeld (yes Jerry Seinfeld’s wife) is also aimed to get children to eat healthy by sneaking in vegetables and fruits. Her recipe includes broccoli and carrot puree to the regular tomato sauce to make it healthy. Since I was going to use the kidney beans sauce, it’s already packed with proteins. So I simply pureed it in the food processor. My son loved this spaghetti pie, but my husband not so much. I think this is a good idea to use any leftover pasta.

Ingredients

Spaghetti, cooked 3 cups

Any leftover pasta sauce (I used the Kidney beans sauce 2 cups

Mozarella, part skim, shredded 1/2 to 1 cup

Procedure 1 Preheat the oven at 350F for 15 minutes. Spray a pie pan with non stick spray.

2 Since I was using the leftover kidney beans sauce, I pureed it in a food processor until nice and
smooth.

3 In a bowl combine together the spaghetti and sauce.

4 Transfer it to the prepared pie plate and spread it evenly.

5 Top it with the cheese and bake it for 25 minutes.

My Notes 1 The taste was very good. My son loved it. But I think a binding agent was missing, so that the slice would retain it’s shape. Later I googled “spaghetti pie” and found that egg is also used while mixing the spaghetti and sauce. So I think we can use either pureed silken tofu, mashed potatoes, a mixture of corn starch/whole wheat flour and water to bind the ingredients. Also adding little (around 1/2 cup) cheese to the spaghetti mixture would be even more tasty.

2 The pureed bean sauce can also be used as a dip. My son was eating baby carrots and I tried to
persuade him to dip it in the bean sauce and to my surprise he did like it.

Spaghetti with Kidney Beans Sauce

Madhuram — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:26:49 +0000

Couple of months back I tried a spaghetti recipe. I prepared some rajma using red kidney beans, cooked whole grain spaghetti as per package directions and topped the pasta with rajma. That was one satisfying meal. I wanted to prepare something similar with Italian flavors. I came across a sauce recipe with borlotti beans in a book called Vegetarian Bible. I didn’t have that beans in hand, so I thought I would use canned kidney beans instead, add some Italian seasoning and top it over the cooked spaghetti. And that’s how this spaghetti recipe was born.

Ingredients

Spaghetti, uncooked I used half a pack of 13.5oz pack

Olive oil 2 teaspoons

Onion, large, thinly sliced 1

Kidney beans One 15.5oz can or 2 cups cooked beans

Tomato sauce, I used Prego Heart Smart Italian Sauce 2 cups

Itaian seasoning/or fresh/dried herbs of your choice as per taste

Salt and Pepper to taste

Baking soda a pinch (optional)

Yield: The above measurement makes a lot of pasta and sauce. It was definitely more than enough for the 2 of us. So you may want to halve the measurements to make a smaller serving. I found out another way to use the leftovers, will post it shortly. Actually that leftover spaghetti recipe was a bigger hit with my son than the original one.

Procedure 1 Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Simultaneously boil water in a large stock pot to cook the spaghetti.

2 Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes, until softened.

3 Stir the tomato sauce into the skillet with the cooked beans and seasoning of your choice. I used 1
teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning.

4 While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta as per package directions. Once the pasta is cooked,
drain it, reserving 1/2 to 1 cup of the water. Add the reserved water to the sauce if required.

5 Increase the heat and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring. Add baking soda, if using and lower the heat, partially cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until th sauce has slightly reduced.

6 Add salt/pepper to the sauce as per taste, transfer to a serving bowl. Serve the sauce over pasta and enjoy a hearty meal.

My Notes 1 For the pasta I used Barilla whole grain thin spaghetti. It tastes
so good and is healthy too. My tall stockpot is burried somewhere in the closet and I didn’t have the patience to take it out. So I broke the spaghetti into half and cooked it in a big sauce pan.

1 I read in a magazine that adding baking soda to tomato sauce or any other tomato dish would reduce
the acidity of the tomatoes. Since we are slightly sensitive to excessive tomatoes I added it.

This spaghetti recipe goes to Vaishali’s It’s a Vegan World – Italian event.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

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Leftover Spaghetti Pie

Spaghetti with Kidney Beans Sauce