Baked Spaghetti is so good it should have its own fancy name. Baghetti? Anyway, the way the sauce thickens up and gels with the meat and noodles is nothing short of magic and they way it pleases your taste buds is practically food porn. What makes this dish even better is the versatility of ingredients you can use. Drop whatever meat or veggies (within reason) you have in the mix and its just as good.
This is the last bit of turkey from Thanksgiving. Mostly the darker and smaller bits that were not even put on the platter. Perfect for the Spaghetti bake. Just chop it up or pull it apart for a more rustic texture to the dish.
Next up, chop up some bread. If you have some crusty bread around that is a couple of days old, even better! The bread will keep this dish from getting to dense and will sponge up the liquids and olive oil.
I like to cut the onion up in small and large pieces. This will keep some pieces tender and others more caramelized. Thus, the full range of onion flavor.
Putting the ingredients for a dish all on a plate together, will give you a good idea of ratio and proportion. If you are prone to over doing it with garlic, onions or any ingredients I suggest you lay it all out like this to get a good visual on it.
This is a good point to get the oven warming up. I like baking this at 375. Slightly higher temps will give you a crustier top and bottom.
Use a tablespoon or so of olive oil infused with some dry herbs to coat the baking dish. I used basil and oregano in mine. Be sure your baking dish is oven safe, then drop in the bits you want to be on top of your Spaghetti Bake when you flip it over. I chose some meat, bread, onions and garlic bits.
Next pile on the Spaghetti. I suggest a good wholewheat spaghetti noodles. I cooked mine for about 5 minutes and then rinsed them in cold water. Just get the noodles limber enough to finish cooking in the oven.
It's important to completely cover the noodles with the spaghetti sauce. This will keep the noodles from getting crunchy. Crunch noodles are number 1 buzz kill of baked Spaghetti. Don't let it happen to you.
Whistle whistle... twiddle twiddle.. and 30 minutes later you get this bit of grub magic. Never mind the chard sauce on the sides. We will be flipping this just as soon as it cools and pulls itself slightly away from the dish edges. Just dump a little parmesan cheese on it and and get yourself a good beverage to wash down the goods.
My flipping technic involves placing the plate upside-down on the bowl, then flipping both in unison. At that point just walk away.. fight the urge to open it up and give it 2 minutes or so to gather itself before using a knife to edge under the bowl and pull it off.
Dump a little more parmesan cheese on the top with a little bit of balsomic vingare and you've done it. The last of the turkey and the makings of a home baked good mood.
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