Movies at Dinner: Spaghetti Squash with Sausage
This spaghetti squash with sausage recipe is a classic and always a reader favorite. Enjoy! 
Spaghetti Squash and Sausage Recipe
Films and Food. Oh, when they are good, they are sooooo good. Take the dialog from the following iconic scene:
“Goddamn, that’s a pretty fu**ing good milkshake.”
“Told ya.”
“I don’t know if it’s worth five dollars, but it’s pretty fu**ing good”
It’s hard to order a milkshake, especially not a $5 shake without thinking of Pulp Fiction. I can’t even order a high-$$$ everyday eatable without thinking of Pulp Fiction. The $12 burger? $16 pho? They all get the Vincent Vega skepticism.
Video for Delicious Spaghetti Squash with Sausage recipe:
This film and food connection extend way past burgers, shakes, and the cult dialog of Pulp Fiction. Sometimes it is the music linking the food & film forever in our minds. Mambo Italiano and Big Night, anyone? Or take Paolo Conte’s “Via con me” and the kitchen scenes of Mostly Martha.
Other times it will be a certain dish or ingredient which sparks the TCM flashback. Spice and chocolate – Chocolat. Any mention of bear meat – A Chef in Love. (Weird, I know but if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know what I’m talking about.) Nearly all of our Top 10 Food Films will inspire some sort of culinary trigger.
Sometimes they will even inspire or influence our cooking or techniques. I first tackled the challenge of Puff Pastry due to Babette’s Feast. And an obscure scene from Dinner Rush forever changed how I cook sausage.
One of the boys in the kitchen whips up a quick meal of sausage and pasta for the boss (Danny Aiello). To cook the sausage, he took an uncooked sausage, pulled pinches of sausage out of the casing, dropped the perfect little balls into the pan and quickly sauteed them up.
So simple. So brilliant. Something I had never seen or read about. We didn’t grow up in an Italian household so my ways about cooking Italian stemmed from books. And now, the movies have become our teachers too.
In a salute to the great food movies, here’s a simple little dish using this movie inspired cooking technique… Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Sausage.
We love spaghetti squash. It is a perfect winter squash, giving up a great texture when cooked right. Try not to cook it until it gets mushy. It should still have a little bite like… spaghetti. Mangia!
-Todd
P.S. Would love to hear your food and film connections! Whether it is just your favorite food movies or scenes (can’t end this without giving a shoutout to Tampopo – one of our favorites of all time), foods you associate with a movie, or anything else related. Hit us with your Fave Fives.
How to make this spaghetti squash with sausage recipe:
roast in oven until squash separate easily
sauté onions or shallots and garlic until lightly golden
cook pinched sausage until golden brown
add squash, cook until heated, toss with parmesan cheese & herbs. Enjoy!
Dive in. This spaghetti squash with sausage is soooo good.
Nothing beats tried and true kitchen tools and products, plus a little bonus of some of our favorites for entertaining. Here’s some of the favorites:
Paderno Spiralizer – The Classic! We’ve lost track of how many meals this one has made for us. Fantastic spiralizer.
KitchenAid Spiralizer Attachment – Spiralize, peel, core, slice. All from the power of the KitchenAid stand mixer.
OXO Julienne Peeler – For those who love it simple. This great julienne peeler has seen a lot of mileage in our kitchen. This recipe was originally published in 2011 and re-published in 2020 with updated video.

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 Spaghetti Squash (@3lbs or 1.35 kg)
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Olive Oil , divided
- 1/2 large onion , thickly sliced
- 3 cloves Garlic , crushed or finely minced
- 1 pound (454 g) uncooked Sausage (any kind you prefer)
- 1 cup (100 g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) finely chopped fresh Oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried oregano), or other complimentary herb to the sausage
- Kosher Salt , to taste
- fresh Cracked Black Pepper , to taste
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 375°F. Oil a sheet pan with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil.
- Slice spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. (Kitchen Tip: Use the tip of the knife to first pierce and get the cut started. Once you get the first cut started the rest of the squash should slice easily.) Scoop out the seeds and strands, then place cut side down on the prepared sheet pan.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until the squash flesh separates easily into strands with a fork. When cool enough to handle, finish loosening and removing the "spaghetti" from the shells and set aside.
- Pinch and pull small balls of sausage out of the casing (or make small balls from bulk sausage). Continue making small balls out of all of the sausage.
- Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Heat remaining 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in pan, then add onions and garlic. Cook until soft, stirring every 30 seconds, then add sausage. Cook untouched until bottom side of sausage starts to brown, then stir. Continue cooking and stirring occasionally until the sausage is cooked through (@ 2-3 minutes depending on heat and size of sausage).Add spaghetti squash strands to the sausage and continue cooking until heated (usually less than a minute.)
- Remove from heat. Toss in paremsan cheese and oregano. Season with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Serve immediately.












Lovely photos. I’d never tried spaghetti squash until I found it at the CSA we bought into last fall. I roasted it, but it just didn’t do much for me. But adding sausage (as seen here) seems like another reason to try it.
As for movies? Lobster scene in Flashdance, that gorgeous fried egg sandwich in Spanglish, french fries and rollerskates in American Graffiti, and has anyone mentioned Nine 1/2 Weeks yet? Also, Eat, Man, Drink, Woman–I remember steamed dumplings.
gck
GCK
And how could I forget Like Water for Chocolate?!? A beautiful, sensual film.
Can’t forget the food scenes in Eat, Pray, Love…especially the Neapolitan Pizza – Mangia Mangia!!
Wow, that looks really good, can’t wait to try. You take great pics…Can you tell me what kind of plates you served those on. Are those pie plates?
Thanks,-al
Yummy! I have only used spaghetti squash a few times – this looks delicious. Thanks for the great idea!
Great post, Todd. I’m a longtime fan of movies with food, or food themes. Did you guys see “I Am Love” with Tilda Swinton? It’s available on Netflix. It’s my most recent fave food themed film. I think you’ll like it. Thanks for the spaghetti squash recipe — looks amazing.
I’ve always been a total movie buff — especially when it comes to the old B&W classics, but have never associated them with food. hmmm. I’ll have to think on why that might be. As for spaghetti squash, I’ve never tried it, but have always been curious, and this mix with sausage sounds like a perfect way to get acquainted with it. Lovely, as always 🙂
Love the older movies too. Especially the movies coming out of the 40’s and 50’s. I don’t associate food with most of those movies either. But cocktails…. Ah yes! Sidecar and Aunt Mame! It’s the movie which got me hooked on that classic cocktail!
Todd
I have been wanting to try a spaghetti squash recipe similar to this for a long time, but your looks so good I don’t think I can wait any longer!
You mentioned Chocolat, but that’s definitely one of those movies that makes me start drooling.
Love your blog!
Haven’t read all the comments (must run or DH will brain me) but try your Public Library for Tampopo. I got it there awhile back and enjoyed it very much (am in SF Bay Area…)
Thinking about ‘food porn’ with all your great shots, but can’t think of any movies that spoke to me the way a still can.
What are the movies with great sugary stuff? I was dismayed that neither Willy Wonka movie made me crave candy AT ALL, but any time there is a gold wrapper on anything the kids are always thinking about tickets!
I love spaghetti squash, and the sausage pairing is a great idea.
For some peculiar reason, I remember eating fettuccine Alfredo while watching The Shining. I suppose it sticks out in my mind because the fettuccine was divine and the movie was deliciously eerie!
I make mine the same way except I throw in some chopped tomatoes with the sausage and cook them down until I get a thick red sauce! Thanks for sharing 🙂
We love matching foods with films! One summer we tried to do it weekly with our outdoor movie projector. Next month, our friends are doing a Fast and the Furious marathon (1 per night) to gear up for Fast & Furious 5 – it’s going to be so fun!
You *have* to watch Tampopo! You’ll never eat a bowl of ramen again without thinking of that movie. I love it!
We finally found Tampopo! It was brilliant! Tied for my favorite food movie of all time (Babette’s Feast) You’re right… I can’t eat ramen w/o thinking of Tampopo. I can’t even eat any noodle soup or hear the slurping of noodles w/o thinking of Tampopo!
You’ve finally done it. You’ve figured out a way to prepare spaghetti squash that I believe I could deeply enjoy. Spaghetti squash is one of the very few foods on earth that I no longer seek out at the market. Something about the flat depth of flavor and the plastic-like consistency that reminds me of unbinding stringy rubber golf ball cores … well, it just doesn’t blow my dress up. But this recipe I’m going to try! We have two good (ahem) SS left in cold storage from December’s tailgate and they are about to be spared from a compost burial.
Wonderful work, as usual, guys!
I’m going to give a shout out to Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia and It’s Complicated. I never tire of women chef’s and their beautiful kitchen’s. We need more Food Movies!
I’m going to second those! I love them not only because Meryl is one of my favorite actresses but also for the fact the movies make me feel cozy. And to have a bakery like in “It’s Complicated” anywhere near here would be a dream, or if I owned on—whoo hoo! One of these days I will make chocolate croissants, lavender ice cream and croque monsieur…I will.
I love spaghetti squash, but usually make it the same way. This looks like a wonderful new recipe to try!
I love spaghetti squash, and your version looks amazing! It really makes me want to pick one up this weekend to cook!
The first food movie that came to mind is Ratatouille, I can watch this over and over! And it it gives zucchini the love it deserves!
Fun post, and beautiful pics as usual!