“Hello, friends! I’m Mr. Spaghetti Squash! And the lady in front of me clearly has either too much free time, or else children who will need to be coaxed into trying new things! Ahem!”

“This…may end badly for me.”

“Okay, I’ve had holes poked all over me, and now – oh, this is hot! I’d say about 400 degrees!” (Yes, I had to narrate this way the whole time for my four-year-old son. Maybe it’ll sink in, though, and my future daughter-in-law will be immensely grateful for a husband who loves to cook? )

An hour later…

“Let me tell you about the day I’ve had. Couldn’t possibly get worse, though, I suppose.”

“I WAS WRONG.”

“AUUUUUUUUUUUGH!”

“Better. Much better, in fact. I feel free! And I’ve been adorned with a few tablespoons of toasted pine nuts, half a cup of seasoned bread crumbs, and some salt and pepper.”

“Like my new look? One cup of marinara sauce and a cup of mozzarella cheese, and I’m a whole new squash.”

And after being covered in foil and going back into the 400-degree oven for ten minutes, then doing five more without the foil:

“How ya like me now?”

Mmmmmmm.

Nutritional info will depend on the size of your squash, but for mine, which filled a 9×11 casserole, and on which I put Sargento Reduced Fat cheese, and which made 6 really big servings: Fat: 6.0g; Carbohydrates: 30.2g; Calories: 201.3; Protein: 9.2g.

Eric here – I cook, too.  Tonight, I made cheese ravioli.

Step one: mix one cup of high-protein flour (bread flour, for example) with 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil, one large egg, and a pinch of salt.  I use a food processor to mix it all together, but you could just as easily use a stand mixer, or do it the old fashioned way.  Once a nice, smooth dough forms, wrap it in plastic and rest for 10-20 minutes.  During the rest, you can make the filling.

I used a mixture of eight ounces of ricotta cheese, four ounces of cottage cheese, one large egg, about 1/2 ounce of grated parmigiano-reggiano, 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella, and some dried basil and oregano.  (Yes, fresh would be better, but the dried herbs will do fine here – they’ll have plenty of time to soak up moisture while we’re working the noodle dough.)

I stuck the filling in the refrigerator to tighten up a bit, and started to work the dough.

I use my stand mixer with the pasta roller attachment to roll out the dough into sheets.

Then, spread out little mounds of filling on one of the sheets, brush the noodle with water (to help the pasta sheets stick together and seal), and cover with the top sheet.  As you press the top sheet down, make sure to press all the air out of the areas around the filling – you don’t want the ravioli to explode while they’re boiling.

I used to do this part with a knife and fork (cut with the knife, and make the pattern around the ravioli with the fork), and make square ravioli.  This little stamper/cutter makes the process much more enjoyable, and works much better.

Kids can use it too.  Easy-peasy.

Once they’re all stamped out, pop them into boiling water for about a minute.  When they float, they’re pretty much done; I like to let them go another 15 seconds or so.  Sauce with whatever you like – melted butter, with or without herbs cooked in it (I like to fry sage leaves in butter), or tomato sauce, or béchamel, etc.  We used a red pepper sauce and a béchamel tonight.

Enjoy!