People, it’s Friday! Woo hoo! I don’t know a lot of people who don’t like Fridays, with the exception of people in the restaurant industry perhaps; so let’s celebrate. For years, when I was a kid, my family and I would eat pizza every Friday night. It was THE tradition, order or pick up some delicious pizza and watch TGIF on ABC. (ha ha!) I used to love watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch, especially when the Violent Femmes guest spotted on the show. Uh oh, now you can probably pin my age down! Not like it matters. 
Well, how about instead of the usually very greasy and carb-filled pizza, you try this recipe out. Using a spaghetti squash as opposed to a crust, you can put your favorite pizza toppings all up in this dish to make it your own. I’m also thinking about making a Mexican-themed one like this, and the wheels are a turnin’; so many options!
I tried out a new product with this recipe, and that was Gimme Lean’s Ground Sausage. I wasn’t sure what to expect, because I have made my own seitan sausage crumbles before and I didn’t know what the texture of this would be like. When you first open up the tube, it’s soft and tacky with some small lumps in the mixture. It smells good, and the traditional way to prepare it would be to cut it into patties and pan fry them; in this case I separated the sausage more and made them small chunks (as seen below). Overall, I like them and would definitely use them again; especially if I didn’t have time to make my own.
Servings: 4-6 (depending on how much restraint you have )
Ingredients:
- 1 Large Spaghetti Squash, Mine was roughly 8″ long x 5″ wide
- 1 Tube Gimme Lean Ground Sausage Style
- 4 Cups Diced Tomato
- 1/4 Cup Tomato Paste
- 1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes
- 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
- 1 1/2 Cups Daiya Shreds, I used half Cheddar & half Mozzarella (Save 1/2 cup for topping with)
- Optional: Black Olives, Bell Peppers, or any other pizza-like topping
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Clean the squash, slice it in half, scoop out the seeds/pulp and place both halves face down into a baking dish. Fill the baking dish 1/4″ full with water and poke holes in the rinds with a fork. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
- In the meantime, break apart the ground sausage into smaller pieces in a large pan over medium heat. Brown the pieces on all sides until they are slightly crispy.
- Add the diced tomato and tomato paste to the sausage pieces, stir together and simmer over low-medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the Italian seasoning, red pepper flake and sea salt into the pan mixture; simmer for an additional 2 minutes and taste it to see if you want to add any more herbs to the sauce and decrease to low heat.
- Next, wait until the squash is done baking; test the squash by pushing on the rind with a spoon to see if it’s soft. Leave the oven on, and scrape the squash with a fork into the sausage mixture until the rinds are empty, making sure to not puncture the rind.
- Fold the spaghetti squash and 1 cup of the Daiya shreds into the sauce until fully incorporated and the shreds are melted.
- Spoon the pizza filling back into the two squash halves, top with the remaining Daiya shreds and bake at 375°F for 20 minutes. Serve warm, and pair it with a refreshing salad of greens.
I dare you to try not eating the amazing pizza stuffing straight out of the squash rind. I tried so hard, alas… Who am I kidding? I didn’t try to resist at all! I’m so glad that I didn’t because it was absolutely delicious.
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