eat yer veggies!

It is very definitely veggie season. We've been eating a lot of them. They are yummy. Here is a great recipe that uses up the gazillions of tomatoes that appear in the kitchen (I swear there is a tomato-generating troll in a cupboard somewhere.)

Spaghetti Squash & Tomato-Bean sauce

1 spaghetti squash
1-2 lbs tomatoes
couple tbsp olive oil
1/2 - 1 can/jar cannellini beans
1/2 onion
couple cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
sploosh red wine
salt & pepper
as much basil as you can scare up (within reason)
grated parmesan

Chop the stalk off the squash, stab it and throw it in the oven at 350-375. It will take about an hour or so to cook, but it needs no tending whatsoever.

Dice the onion and slowly soften it over low heat in the olive oil, with the bay leaves. When it is nice and transparent and squishy, add the garlic (minced) and soften that up nicely. Add the tomatoes (diced) and the wine, and simmer, covered, until it looks like sauce (about 45 minutes or so is good). Remove cover, add rinsed beans and reduce sauce until it is nice and thick (about 15 minutes). Rip or chop your basil (yes ripping is preferable but chopping is faster) and stir it in the sauce. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Cut the squash in half & remove seeds. "Fluff" squash with a fork into stringy spaghetti-like strands, but leave it in the rind, which should be good and hard. Top with the tomato-bean sauce and some grated parmesan. (Optional - stick under broiler for a minute or so to make parmesan bubbly.)

Given that the in-laws are going away for a month and abandoning their tomato plants to our tender ministrations (mwa ha ha), and spaghetti squashes are cheap and plentiful, I expect we will be eating variations on this quite a lot over the next month. I may update with a "how to get more protein in this meal" post later.