Three Cheese Spaghetti Pie

Every now and then you find a recipe that just sounds odd, but has a good chance of tasting pretty good. Sometimes it’s a picture of the recipe, or the name of it. It was definitely the name with last night’s meal

Three Cheese Spaghetti Pie

6 ounces spaghetti, cooked, drained, and rinsed with cold water
1 large egg, separated
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ pound ground beef
1 ¼ cup spaghetti sauce
¾ cup Ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9 inch pie plate with cooking spray.

Combine spaghetti, egg white, and Parmesan cheese in a medium bowl. Press the mixture into the pie plate to form a pie shell

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the beef. Cook, stirring frequently, until beef is brown and crumbly – roughly 5 minutes. Drain and return to skillet, then stir in spaghetti sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes and set aside.

Combine Ricotta, egg yolk, parsley, and ½ cup mozzarella in a medium bowl. Spread mixture into spaghetti pie shell

Spread meat sauce over cheese mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella. Cover pie with foil. Bake for 35 minutes, removing foil during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Let stand before serving.

Source: Easy Everyday Cooking cards

Notes from the Hare

Taste-wise this reminds me of lasagna.

You could substitute cottage cheese for the Ricotta and grated Romano for the Parmesan.

For a lighter meal, exchange the beef for ground turkey and 2 egg whites for the yolk. You could also use low-fat cheeses.

You can use the spaghetti pie crust for other meals – simply prepare the pie shell as above and fill it with roast chicken, pork, or beef.

Five-Spice Pork Sandwiches

There hasn’t been as much time to work on recipes of late as I would like, sadly – but now that I have a few moments in between trying to get everything to just calm down a bit, might I present Five-Spice Pork? It is very yummy.

Five Spice Pork Sandwiches

1 2 ½ to 3 pound pork shoulder roast
1 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 ½ teaspoons five-spice powder
6 to 8 kaiser rolls, split and toasted
1 ½ to 2 cups shredded Chinese cabbage

Trim any excess fat from roast. If necessary, cut roast to fit into a 3 ½ or 4 quart crockery cooker. Place meat in cooker

For sauce, combine apple juice, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and five-spice powder. Pour over roast.

Cover and cook on low heat setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on high heat setting for 5 to 6 hours.

Remove roast from cooker. Remove meat from bone; discard bone and fat. Using two forks, shred the meat. Serve meat on toasted rolls with Shredded cabbage.

Source: What’s for Dinner? From Better Homes and Gardens Books, Inc. © 1995

Notes from the Hare

You can serve this au jus by skimming the fat from the juices and spooning the juice into small bowls, supplying a bowl of juice with each sandwich.

Five-Spice powder should be in the Oriental section of your grocery. IF you can’t find it, you can make your own.

Combine all of the following:

3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
6 star anise or 2 teaspoons aniseed
1 ½ teaspoons fennel seed
1 ½ teaspoons whole szechwan peppercorns or whole black peppercorns
¾ teaspoon ground cloves

in a blender. Cover and blend to a fine powder, then store in an airtight container.