Spaghetti Squash Turkey Tetrazzini

After almost a week past our Thanksgiving holiday, I can safely say we have finished eating turkey.  That is until we unfreeze the turkey soup and that won't be for a quite a while.  We not only had enough for plenty of leftovers, Dave made a turkey breast for our Sunday night dinner.  Yes, I am moving on to fish.

While my wonderful godson said our Thanksgiving dinner was the best meal he has ever eaten, I think he was just really hungry after playing 18 holes.  My best part of this holiday food fest was an experiment with a spaghetti squash just sitting on the kitchen counter and my need to eat just a bit healthier as my ever expanding waist was crying out.  I normally try to get in a turkey tetrazzini after the holiday and when I saw the squash, I immediately went online and of course the recipe was there in many variations.  I am here to say the one I choose turned a heavy meal with noodles to a fabulous one using squash.  At the end of the day, I use the big guy as a guage to determine if the dish worked and this time it definitely did.  Even though it was full of squash, he said it was also full of flavor and delicious!

You don't have to wait for Thanksgiving to try this recipe.  You can use a turkey breast or even chicken.  Heck, you can head to Costco and purchase a rotisserie chicken!  I also added the roasted green beans with cranberries I had leftover.

Ingredients:

1 3 1/2 pound spaghetti squash
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken broth or chicken stock
1 ba leaf
3 cups diced cooked turkey
1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
1 tablespoon dry sherry wine
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
fresh lemon juce to taste
freshly grated nutmeg to taste
2 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs

Directions:

Bake the spaghetti squash, pricked with a knife on a baking sheet in a preheated 400 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until tender.  Let it cool and halve the squash lengthwise, remove the seeds and center strings.  With a fork, scrape the flesh from the skin into a buttered 13 by 9 inch baking dish.  Season with salt and pepper.

In a saucepan, melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook the roux over moderately low heat, stirring for three minutes.  Add the broth in a slow stream, whisking vigorously until the mixture is smooth.

 Add the bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer the sauce for 20 minutes.  Stir in the turkey, cream and sherry, bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for five minutes.  Add 1/3 cup of the cheese, the lemon juice and mutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.  Discard the bay leaf. 

Spoon the turkey mixture over the spaghetti squash and sprinkle it with the remaining parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.  I realized too late that I did not have Ready made bread crumbs and took my thin bread sticks and improvised!  Bake the dish in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden. 

While we all have so much to be thankful for in this wonderful world we live in, I urge you to always take a look around and find ways to help those in need.   With our eyes wide open, we can find small ways to brighten the day of someone struggling.  Yesterday was a bittersweet day for me.  A good family friend welcomed their newest grandchild into this world and we lost a bright young woman to cancer.  Please hug your loved ones extra tight today with a little extra squeeze from me.

See you soon,

Linda