Don’t Forget Your Vegetables

I don’t consider myself a picky eater, but there are a few things that I don’t really care for. Andrew thinks I’m weird for not liking nuts (it’s a texture thing) and melons (I only like watermelon). Mushrooms are not a favorite of mine, although I still put them in recipes for Andrew. And like a lot of people, there are some vegetables I don’t care to eat. I have found a recipe for carrots that I actually like (I’ll post that recipe soon), and I like the Brussels sprouts Andrew makes (with bacon), but now I have a recipe that gets me to eat peas. It’s not my favorite recipe (because of the peas!), but Andrew likes it, and it gets me to eat a vegetable I usually avoid.

Spaghetti Pie
Active time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Makes: 6 main-dish servings

1 lb. spaghetti4 strips bacon, chopped (I added 2 extra slices to help cover the taste of those peas!)
1 lg. red onion (10-12 oz), finely chopped
1 container (15 oz) part-skim ricotta cheese
4 lg. eggs
2 c. 2% milk
1/4 tsp. cayenne (ground red) pepper
1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
2 c. frozen peas (I would happily decrease this to 1 cup…)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Heat large covered pot salted water to boiling on high. Cook spaghetti as package directed.
3. Meanwhile, in 12-in. skillet, cook bacon on medium 6-8 minutes or until crisp, stirring occasionally. With slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain To fat in pan, add onion. Cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.
4. While onion cooks, in very large bowl, whisk ricotta, eggs, milk, cayenne, half of Parmesan, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
5. Drain spaghetti well. Stir into ricotta mixture along with peas, bacon, and onion. Spread in even layer in 3-quart shallow baking dish. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan on top. Bake 30-35 minutes or until set.

If following the recipe above (no extra bacon or higher fat milk or ricotta), each serving has about 660 calories, 36 g protein, 76 g carbohydrates, 23 g total fat (11 g saturated), 6 g fiber, 175 mg cholesterol, and 700 mg sodium.