Spaghetti Squash

This is the first year we’ve grown spaghetti squash, and last week we picked two small ones that looked ripe:

As you can see, we also picked a couple zucchini (one plant is still going strong!) and a tiny side shoot of broccoli. Last week we also harvested several large cantaloupes (and have since given up on eating it all — but we do share the overripe ones with the chickens).

All of those ripe fruits made for a pretty great dinner last weekend, too:

We had a mixed plate of prosciutto-wrapped melon, spaghetti squash with fresh tomato sauce, and zucchini hash (which tastes much better than it looks/sounds). 

So about that spaghetti squash. This is also the first time I’ve eaten it, and it reminds me much more of sauerkraut than spaghetti — the texture, that is. The flavor is pretty much like zucchini in that it takes on whatever herbs and spices you want to add to it. Texture is a big deal for me when it comes to food, though, so I’m not sure I’m on board with all those people who say this is an appropriate one-to-one substitute for angel hair or what have you.

It seems to me more like some farmer had a flash of inspiration about how to market stringy squash. This is not to say it doesn’t taste good — it does! — but you have to go into it with open eyes about how it’s a vegetable. (You should also probably also practice more patience than we did and wait until the squash cools a bit before scraping outage guts for dinner, unless you like burnt hands.)

That said, it’s hard for me to believe that there’s a whole industry built around the idea of making “pasta” out of otherwise perfectly good vegetables. I don’t think I need to pick up a Spiralizer any time soon, but it that’s your thing, bon appetite!