Thursday, October 2, 2008

Left over Spaghetti Sauce?? Make Stromboli

My husband ate the leftover spaghetti until we ran out of noodles, but we still had leftover spaghetti sauce. I don't like to waste food, so I decided to come up with a dish to use the rest of it. I made Spaghetti/Pizza Stromboli.

Spaghetti/Pizza Stromboli
1 tube Pillsbury refrigerated French Loaf Bread
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese blend
1 cup leftover spaghetti sauce (with the meat already added)
25 slices pepperoni
Unroll french loaf on a greased baking sheet. Spread the spaghetti sauce evenly over the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Place a layer of pepperoni over the sauce. Cover evenly with the shredded cheese. Roll up the loaf, jelly roll style, and lay seam side down on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until crust is just browned and cooked through.

Notes: I used mozzarella and mexican cheese because that's what I had on hand. Feel free to use what you like. Yummy!!!

So Simple,yet So Delicious: Spaghetti

My husband loves spaghetti so much, but I don't make it very often because I really like it also, and I tend to eat too much of it. I know there are so many fancy ways of making spaghetti, but my homemade sauces don't really taste any better than Ragu. I like to keep it simple and delicious, and serve it with a side of garlic bread.
I debated whether or not to blog our spaghetti dinner, but I decided that I should. Did you know that there are people out there who don't know how to make spaghetti? For example, when I moved into my first apartment with my husband, I didn't know how to cook ANYTHING. The first time my husband asked me to saute an onion, I didn't know that you had to peel it first. I sauted the onion, peel and all. Oh well, I have learned so much since then, but I still have a long way to go....which leads me to a question about spaghetti. My spaghetti often turns out very watery. It still tastes great, but there is just too much water. Do you ever have this problem??? If you do, how do you fix it??? I tried to make sure my noodles were extra dry this time, but it didn't help much. A tip I found in a magazine said to add bread crumbs to the sauce to soak up the extra water (apparently, according to the tip, it doesn't change the texture or taste). I'm going to try this next time, unless someone can give me advice that sounds better. So again, I'm asking for all advice to fix my watery spaghetti.
Spaghetti

1-12 oz package spaghetti noodles

1 to 1 1/2 lbs of hamburger meat

1 large bottle/jar Ragu spaghetti sauce (oringal flavor for us)

Grated Parmesan (optional)

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, brown hamburger meat in a large pan; drain. Add Ragu to hamburger meat in the same pan and turn heat to low. Simmer until sauce is warm. Drain noodles when done. Pour sauce over noodles and add as much grated Parmesan as you want.

Notes: We only eat Ragu, but I guess you could try Prego or any other brand of spaghetti sauce if you really want to.