Spaghetti NOT: curried spaghetti squash

You've seen it, or at least heard about it: the squash which, when you cook it, shreds up like spaghetti noodles. You may have even seen some of the recipes "just mix it with your favorite spaghetti sauce, and your kids will EAT THEIR VEGETABLES"

Not so fast. I can say with certainty that I have tried to learn to love this vegetable for 19 years. I remember when I was given my first one: a secretary named Carol left it on my desk chair one day, when I was at lunch. I recognized it, because spaghetti squash has a very unique, albeit nondescript look about it: it's oblong and yellow, something like a very misformed melon. Of course , I had to try it.

THAT's where the fun began: every single recipe I saw called upon me to boil it. Now, spaghetti squash loses its noodle like shape if you cut it up, so you have to boil it WHOLE, and that's where the fun begins. Guestimate: how long do you think it takes to boil a 3-4 pound squash with a thick skin? If you guessed 2-2.5 hours, you're close. Try about 3. Now, you have a very hot, wet, soft, mass to deal with. It's got to cool down. Add on another couple of hours. Then you cut it open and you have: mess. Wet hot squash and seeds all over. And when it's all done it tastes, well, watery and disgusting.

I tried way too many sauces to try to make this good and, finally, I gave up.

BUT... there's always someone who pushes you back to those old spots. This time it was the incredibly talented Ryan Tate, who cooks at Savoy. A couple of years ago, Ryan served up a dish, which I believe involved duck confit, on top of a pancake of spaghetti squash. Wonderful. I tried again, without checking with Ryan. Yet again, failure. THIS year, spaghetti squash carbonara showed up on the menu. Again, fabulous. But this time:

"Hey, Ryan, my spaghetti squash always turns out wrong. How come?"

His reply: "How the fuck do you fuck it up? You cut it in half, you bake it, and you're done. What's the problem."

It was a "WOW. I COULDA HAD A V 8 " moment (actually not. I HATE V8). But... store that in the back of your head, Annalena, together with your trashy memoirs, where your black sweater is hung, and the phone number of your first boy friend (yup, Clark, I still remember it). And then, do nothing with it.

Until you see them on sale at the vegetable market and hurriedly grab one on your way out.

Following Ryan's instructions, I made a long, vertical cut through the beast, oiled it, and laid it, face down on parchment paper, and baked it, for 350. The skin had softened, but not to the point of pulp, which is what Ryan told me I needed. I let it cool for about ten minutes. Then, I scraped out the seeds with a spoon, and, with a fork, gently scraped out the flesh. SUCCESS!!! I had just under 3 cups of spaghetti squash that really looked like long, thin noodled. I was planning to try some butter and cheese concoction.

And then... going through my file of "things to cook NOW", I found a recipe for a crostini involving curried spaghetti squash and chickpeas. Now, that sounded good, but not what I wanted. So I read through the thing to see if I could do it as a side dish vegetable, without chick peas.

Yes, I could. And I did. And it's terrific. Here's how we do it.

First, cook up the spaghetti squash like it's explained above. You can do this well ahead of time and store it in the fridge. Now, we're going to make the curry. You need some good spices here: it's a curry, so play with it. I used a tablespoon of coriander, that I ground (glad to have that coffee bean grinder), and half of that, of ground cumin. I put them, together with a half teaspoon of hot pepper into that mill, and ground them together. Then, I mixed them with a hefty 2 teaspoons of curry powder. Use whatever kind you like. Put that aside, and chop up an onion or two, and about half as much celery.

Put about a quarter cup of olive oil in a pan, and when it's hot, add the vegetables with about a teaspoon of salt. When the onions start to soften, add the spices. Cook them up for about a minute and then add half a cup of water. The water allows the spices to in fact become your "sauce." If you feel like it's not wet enough, well, add more.

Finally, add that spaghetti squash, and toss it around in the sauce, as if it were spaghetti. It won't take long. Add some more salt if you like, and you are DONE, with a terrific side dish.

Like I said, play with the spices. I left out the orange peel and the cilantro (fresh), from the recipe I studied, because the Guyman doesn't care for cilantro, and I thought the orange would make it too "sweet." I could see some fresh ginger here, or some more tumeric, or whatever you like.

Thank you Ryan. Spaghetti squash is on the menu here again.