



When spaghetti squash meets ratatouille, nobody can complain this sort is difficult to eat.

I read a lot of complaints about preparing this spaghetti squash in gardening books and on the internet. My heart sinks, as I grew a lot of them this year, and I had a big harvest.





First, the flavor was described as “bland”. Secondly, it takes time to prepare which is different from courgette spaghetti which only takes 5 minutes to cook. Third, the texture of this sort is watery which is only suitable to eat together with (tomato) sauce. It’s sad, right? I should have a big headache, right? As I have about 20 + of them from my garden.





I’ve eaten it a few times since my harvest, and this time I know I get the quality to the standard that I can tell people how to enjoy this sort of squash.





I know for a lot of people who don’t have their own vegetable garden or allotment, the flavor of this type of squash might differ. This is because I use “no dig” gardening technique. As described, I don’t dig my garden, I try to interfere with the soil as little as possible and on top of this I put a lot of green compost every year. Not digging allows for the fungus to develop, which is required for vegetables to grow. Besides earthworms can live happily under the soil, helping me to do all the “digging work.” I learned this no dig organic gardening technique from Charles Dowding. If you are interested in this, please visit his website or buy his book. Please note that this article is not sponsored.





So ok, what I want to say is that my squash might taste better than what you can get from the normal supermarket. Mine is sweet, not bland at all. I am glad with the result. I can even just eat it without adding any sauce.





So now let’s talk about how to prepare Ratatouille.





Ingredients:





Spaghetti squash 1

Shiitake 5 pieces

Aubergine (eggplant) 1

Cherry tomatoes 500 gram (I used olive shaped ones)

Courgette 150 gram

Long shaped Pepper 1

Basil, a few leaves

Olives 10

Salt

Plant oil





Step by Step





Preheat the oven





A real ripe spaghetti squash is very hard to cut. So we put one in the oven, and wait for about 20-25 minutes. After 20-25 minutes, you can take it out and cut it into half. Then take out the seeds, and put it back in the oven with the cut side down. Wait for another 20-25 minutes. The total time is about 45 minutes, it depends on your oven and the location where you are. By putting the cut side down, it can take out the water from the squash which makes the texture just like spaghetti. Don’t wait too long though.





In the meantime cut shiitake into small pieces. Set aside.

Chop Courgette, pepper and aubergine into small pieces. Set aside.

Cut cherry tomatoes in half. (The reason I choose cherry tomatoes or olive shaped tomatoes is that they have a stronger flavor than normal ones and are less watery, which is good for spaghetti squash sauce, if you want the texture to be perfect). Set aside.

Cut olives into small pieces and set aside.

Add plant oil to your frying pan. Add salt to prevent you from getting burnt.

Sauté shiitake together with aubergine for a couple of minutes.

Add cut cherry tomatoes to the frying pan. Stir a bit when necessary. Then fry chopped courgette and pepper.

Add olives to your ratatouille.

Finally add a few torn basil leaves.

Take your spaghetti squash out of the oven. Mix with ratatouille as sauce.









I really love eating this spaghetti squash with ratatouille as the sauce.





Voila, enjoy your spaghetti squash with ratatouille.

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