Wrap Around Spaghetti

The number of “Servings” in a recipe is always open for interpretation. It all depends on who you are serving. Children? Teenagers? Adults? Seniors? It might also depend on just how hungry the people you are serving are.

For example, this recipe claims to serve two. That’s one pound of ground beef divided in half plus the balance of the ingredients. Despite what you might think when you look at my physique, a half pound of ground beef, plus pasta, plus vegetables is a lot for me to eat. My Shirley and I might typically eat a Quarter-Pounder at McDonald’s. Well, My Shirley wouldn’t. She would likely order a Big Mac which has less than a quarter pound of ground beef. 

Of course there’s also the bun, pickles, lettuce, sauce and cheese. We’d likely split medium fries as well. Somehow eating a half pound of ground beef at one sitting however, just seems like a lot to us, no matter what you might serve it with.

So the “2 servings” in this meal are usually split between My Shirley and I and we get a second meal of leftovers out of it the following day.

The next time I try to make this, I might cut the ground beef into quarters and cut the noodles in half to make 4 miniature versions of these instead of 2 large ones.

And here’s a little hint when you’re cooking these. You will need a frying pan large enough in diameter to hold uncooked spaghetti noodles which are typically 10” to 12” long. In addition to that, you will need a cover for the frying pan.

Our large frying pan doesn’t have a cover so I substituted aluminum foil. Because it was hard to get a good seal, some of the noodles didn’t completely cook. You could try cooking it a little longer but be careful not to burn the ground beef or the vegetables. It’s best to use a large frying pan that has a lid with a good seal if you can.

Prep Time: 20 min.

Cook Time: 30 min.

Total Time: 50 min.

Serves: 2 at ½ lb each or 4 at ¼ lb each

Stuff You’ll Need:

• 1 lb ground beef

• 2 tsp salt, divided

• 1 tsp pepper, divided

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp rosemary

• 2 small bundles of spaghetti noodles, uncooked (about 60 grams each)

• Vegetable oil

• 1 medium onion

• 1 green pepper

• 1 tomato

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 tbsp sour cream

• 1 cup water

• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

• 1 tbsp parsley

Do This:

1. Mix ground beef, 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, paprika and rosemary in a bowl.

2. Divide in half and wrap each half around the middle of a bundle of spaghetti noodles.

3. Warm a liberal amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan.

4. Place the wrapped noodles in a large frying pan and cook, turning occasionally to brown all sides.

5. While cooking, coarsely chop the onion, pepper and tomato and add to the frying pan on top of and alongside the ground beef/noodle mixes.

6. Sprinkle the remaining salt and pepper over all.

7. While this continues to cook, mix tomato paste, sour cream and water in a medium sized bowl.

8. Pour this mixture over the ingredients in the frying pan.

9. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 25 minutes, checking occasionally to stir ingredients and slightly turn the ground beef/noodle mix to prevent burning.

10. When cooked add cheese on top of the ground beef, cover and continue to cook for another few minutes until the cheese has melted.

11. Place the ground beef/noodle mix on a plate and sprinkle with parsley.

12. Using a slotted spoon to drain the liquid, scoop some of the vegetables to add to the plate.