A New Go To Recipe

Last week we had some friends over for dinner and I didn't want to make what was on our dinner menu for that night so I sat, one night on the living room floor for about 45 minutes looking through my cookbooks. I have had this meal before but have never made it myself, so I thought why not try out a new recipe when you have company. I do this a lot! It turned out that we loved it so much that we cooked it Thursday for friends and again on Sunday for friends and my poor husband ate it Monday and today (Tuesday). I loved it A LOT but since we had it so much in such a short amount of time I think we will be giving it a break until mid September.

Spaghetti Pie

Pie Crust
6 oz uncooked spaghetti
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs, beaten

Cook spaghetti; drain (should have 3 cups cooked spaghetti). Stir butter into the hot spaghetti. Stir in Parmesan cheese and eggs. Form spaghetti mixture into a "crust" in a buttered 10-inch pie plate.

Pie Filling
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 (16oz) can tomatoes, stewed
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 cup parsley

In a skillet cook ground beef and onion until onion is tender and beef is done. Drain off excess fat but don't rinse. Stir in undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic salt, oregano and parsley. Simmer for about 15 minutes. (FYI: you just made homemade spaghetti sauce) Pour the meat mixture onto the spaghetti crust. Bake for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Pie Topping

1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake or broil for 5 minutes until melted and slightly browned.

One 10-inch pie dish has served 4 adults and 2 children for us in case you needed to gage how much to make. This would make a very good freezer casserole, just freeze when it is put together. Thaw it out and then bake for 20 minutes.

I hope your family enjoys it as much as we have!