Spaghetti (Squash) Alternative Recipe with Meat Sauce

Learn how to make a meat sauce that you can serve on spaghetti squash This is a great way to replace pasta and the perfect dinner for a fall evening.

One of my wife's favorite meals is spaghetti with meat sauce. But that doesn't mean we always make pasta. She equally loves taking that same meat sauce and putting it on spaghetti.....

SQUASH!!!!

No fall goes by without us making this at least once. Spaghetti squash are now available year round but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be enjoying them during their peak season in the fall. Let me show you how we do it.

⚙️ Why This Works

When you cook a spaghetti squash when it's done it becomes very stringy. Most squash I don't want this. It's the reason why I skip out on eating a Jack o'Lantern style pumpkin. However in this case the stringiness can be used to your advantage. When scrappled with a fork the squash is tender and noodle like. Thin noodles.

By putting a meat sauce on it, you are also overpowering the flavor of the squash itself. So even if you aren't a big squash fan, the sauce flavor will dominate, and you won't taste much squash.

In my opinion spaghetti squash is more mild and less sweet than many other squash varieties. It's truly unique among squash!

🛒 Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you are going to need:

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 pound ground beef, I like chuck
• 1 hot sausage link
• kosher salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the ground beef, you can use whatever you like. I like ground chuck.

You can use whatever tomato sauce you want. Might I suggest my tomato sauce that includes pumpkin in it! The sauce doesn't taste much like pumpkin but the pumpkin adds sweetness and fiber to the sauce. It's so good and so seasonally appropriate.

📋 Instructions

The first you need to do is cook the spaghetti squash, but while you are doing it you can work on the sauce. That way you can have dinner on the table in no more than an hour.

Here are the instructions if you want to do the squash in the oven:

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
• Place your squash onto a sheet pan with the skin up. Poke some holes with a fork or knife in the top of the squash.
• Roast for about 40 minutes or until tender enough that the squash will form strains when you scrap with a fork.

If you want to cook your spaghetti squash in the Instant Pot in the Air Fryer, check out my instructions in this blog post - When is Spaghetti Squash in Season & How to Cook It. Also don't waste the seeds from the squash. All squash seeds can be saved for roasting like pumpkin seeds.

While the squash is cooking, it's time to make the meat sauce.

Take your hot sausage link and cut it into small pieces, combine this with the ground beef. Add salt and pepper to taste (always freshly ground pepper please!)

Add the meat to a pan over medium-high heat. You want to cook the meat until it's browned and has an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees when checked with a meat thermometer.

Then once the meat is done you will add in your tomato sauce of choice. Bring to a simmer, and allow the sauce to gently simmer for about 10-15 minutes to infuse all the flavors.

If your squash isn't done cooking yet and the sauce is done, just keep it on warm until the squash is ready.