Rummaging through my overflowing recipe files — and, trust me, after more than 30 years of writing about food, I’m not exaggerating when I say overflowing — I found an old recipe for spaghetti pie. It’s the kind of recipe that beckons you through the decades. You know the kind I’m talking about? You don’t want to throw it out, but you simply don’t have the time or inclination to make it, so there it sits for decades until you run across it again.
This recipe likely came about when a resourceful and creative cook wanted to use up some leftover spaghetti. Once I finally got around to making it, I found it so good that next time I may be willing to make fresh spaghetti if I have no leftovers to use.
(READ MORE: In search of pasta dishes even an amateur can master)
I did a little tweaking here and there to the original recipe, substituting eggplant for ground beef to make it a vegetarian meal.
Spaghetti pie is just like it sounds. It has a crust made of pasta, and the filling is full of taste and texture with eggplant, ricotta cheese and a good marinara sauce. I recommend Rao’s. It’s a little more expensive but worth the money.