Dinner for One: Spaghetti Pie

Z. does not say this as often as he used to but when I told him about my Spaghetti Pie he replied, "You can take the girl out of Wyoming but you can't take the Wyoming out the girl."

I thought I was being clever by drawing on an old Italian tradition of combining leftover pasta with eggs, as well as taking advantage of the pantry. No pasta on hand, no problem. Cooked rice could be used in place of the pasta.

I used vegetables that I already had on hand, which meant I used onion, garlic, and broccoli. If using fresh broccoli, I would suggest blanching the broccoli for about 3 minutes before combining it with the onion mixture. I used frozen broccoli so I placed it in a colander under hot water and combined the defrosted broccoli with the onion mixture in the warm pan.

We keep a jar of broken spaghetti pieces in the chance that we would like to make pilaf or use the pasta in tomato soup. I measured two cups of broken-up pasta. My Spaghetti Pie was composed of pasta bound together by an egg mixture. If I had wanted more of a quiche with some pasta, I would have used 3/4 to 1 cup pasta pieces. Next time, I plan on using 1 to 1 1/2 cups of spaghetti pieces to have an equal mix of pasta and egg. The recipe below reflects this change. Enjoy!

Spaghetti Pie

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups dry spaghetti, broken into 1-inch pices
1 small onion, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen broccoli, defrosted
1 tomato, seeds removed and chopped
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cheese of choice
salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease a pie pan or a small baking dish.
3. Cook pasta according to package directions. When done, drain, and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil, and mix, coating each strand with oil so they do not stick together.
4. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pan. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add broccoli and tomato, cook until tomato becomes soft, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Season with salt and pepper.
6. In a bowl, whisk eggs and milk, season with salt and pepper (or cayenne).
7. Combine pasta and vegetables.
8. Pour pasta-vegetable mixture into prepared baking dish.
9. Pour egg mixture over pasta-vegetable mixture. Make sure all the pasta and vegetables are covered. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the top.
10. Bake 25-30 minutes until eggs are set and cheese is golden brown.