This dish is called spagagna (spuh gon yuh), as in the combination of spaghetti and lasagna. Its a casserole that the New Family Mom thought up and Dad assembled.
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| Note the fried noodles. |
The genesis of the dish was, as usual in the New Family home, a need to consume leftovers in a creative way. Dad had previously made spaghetti sauce with sauteed red and yellow bell pepper, baby Portabella mushrooms, and yellow onion. While Dad would eat this low carb dish alone, Opa was invited as a guest for Sunday dinner and Opa needs pasta like fish need water.
Boiling spaghetti noodles is not hard, here are some tips for preventing the noodles from sticking. The rules that apply to egg noodles apply to spaghetti noodles.
Once boiled, Dad remembered a dish he made regularly before he was married and when carbs were a much larger part of his diet. He called it fried spaghetti because he would toss the noodles into in a pan of hot oil for a few minutes before serving. The frying gave them a nice texture. So, he did that here.
Today he replaces the oil with cooking spray. It more uniformly coats the noodles and he uses less to accomplish the same effect.
He then browned some ground beef, and added a can of tomato paste and sugar to taste to the sauce.
Next, he placed the noodles in a oven safe dish and covered them with the sauce. Finally, he topped it a an Italian three cheese blend and heated it at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes. That was disappointing. Most pre-shredded cheese blends do not melt uniformly or brown very well. Whole milk mozzarella is best, but he did not have any on hand. The provolone Mom brought home would have been a nice alternative, but she wouldn't go along with the idea.
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