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Easy Halloween Pasta

Traditional Spaghetti and Meatballs, but with a fun Halloween Twist
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Assembly Time5 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: pasta
Author: Natalie Spittle
Cost: $10-15

Equipment

  • 1 Sauce Pan for cooking the meatballs
  • 1 Large Pot for the noodles
  • 1 Mixing bowl mixing meatballs
  • 1 small pot for making the sauce
  • 1 Set of measuring cups/spoons
  • 1 Spoon/laddle
  • 1 Strainer

Ingredients

Noodles and Sauce

  • 1 box Spaghetti Noodles
  • 1 jar Spaghetti Sauce (typically 1 lb or 8 oz of sauce)
  • 1/4 cup Sour Cream

Meatballs

  • 16 oz Sweet ground Italian Sausage
  • 1 Large egg (or 2 small ones)
  • 1 cup Grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
  • 1 tsp Minced garlic
  • 1 tsp Basil
  • 1/8 tsp Salt
  • 1/8 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil (for cooking the meatballs)

Instructions

Cooking the Pasta

  • Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Season with a pinch of salt.
  • Once the water is boiling, put your noodles in the water. Cook for the recommended time (8-11 minutes).
  • When cooked al dente, remove the noodles from the heat. Strain the noodles.

Making the Meatballs

  • While the water boils, add the Italian sausage, egg, breadcrumbs, grated parmesan, salt, pepper, basil and Italian seasoning to a bowl.
  • Mix together the meatball ingredients until fully combined.
  • Roll the meatball mixture into balls about an inch in diameter. Should yield 16-20 meatballs.
  • Lightly grease a large pan and put on medium heat.
  • Place meatballs onto the pan and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes for a good sear. Continue to cook for the next 10-20 minutes, turning over every few minutes.

Spaghetti Sauce

  • Add a jar of spaghetti sauce to a pan on the stove. Warm it up on low heat for a few minutes.
  • Once the sauce is warm, add in 1/4 cup of sour cream.
  • Mix the tomato sauce and sour cream until fully combined.
  • Add in any seasonings you want to your sauce: basil, oregano, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, etc.

Halloween Pasta Assmebly

  • First, lay down a bed of pasta in a circular shape. (Using a round plate can help)
  • Then, cover the noodles with as much of the orange spaghetti sauce as you like.
  • Next, add a few fresh basil leaves to the top. They help create the look of pumpkin vines.
  • Once you have done that, cut 3 triangles out of your meatballs. These will be the eyes and nose.
  • Cut out a rectangle from the meatballs for the stem at the top of the "pumpkin".
  • Finally, cut out a few chunks of meatball to use as the mouth.
  • Add your meatball facial features onto the bed of pasta and serve your easy, delicious Halloween pasta! (in total about 3 meatballs per pasta plate)

Notes

Tips: 
  • A nice trick for knowing whether or not your pasta is done cooking is to try tossing a noodle at the wall. If it sticks, your noodles are ready to be eaten! Another trick you can try is biting into it to make sure there isn't any white left in the middle of the noddle. 
  • Toss your noodles with a tiny amount of sauce or oil! (after draining the water) Otherwise, you will end up with a large clump of noodles.
  • The nice thing about sausage is that it is pretty hard to burn. It can get pretty crispy and dark, while not tasting like char. You will notice that I allowed the meatballs I used for the eyes on the Halloween pasta to get pretty dark. While this is not necessary, I think it makes the pasta look more like a jack-o-lantern.