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.












I would agree with commenter above who said that Sideways took wine snobbery to a whole new level…loved that movie and probably consumed much more wine after watching. And Eat, Pray, Love…my girlfriends and I saw that and immediately went to a nearby Italian restaurant — we had to have pasta!
Can’t wait to try your spaghetti squash — I love it prepared simply with a little homemade marinara, but this version looks divine!
Wish an image of food and film would pop into my mind right now but movies are few and far between these days. Love spaghetti squash, actually more that real pasta these days. Great recipe with the sausage!
What about “Tortilla Soup”?! Amazing food movie! It’s actually the Mexican-American version of “Eat Drink Man Woman”!
Forgot my Fave Fives!
1. Babette’s Feast
2. Chocolat
3. Ratatouille
4. Julie & Julia
5. Super Size Me (in a disturbing way)
Hi Todd, great recipe. I know I’m a little late on this, but has anyone mentioned Under the Tuscan Sun. I can hardly get past the part with the big pot of boiling water, the handful of salt and the pasta. So, pasta and artichokes for me.
Babette’s Feast is my favorite food movie–I can still hearing the clinking of the dishes as she set the table for the feast.
I actually have a request for a food movie from one of my favorite books (which inspired me to make many changes in my home life–like our chickens) “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.”
I’m making the spaghetti squash and sausage recipe tonight!
If I had to pick an all time favorite food movie, it would have to be Babette’s Feast. Karen Blixen was already one of my favorite authors before watching the movie, such a great storyteller. Then to combine the food element takes it straight into my heart.
I made this for dinner last night and it was AWESOME. We told our 4 1/2 year old daughter it was yellow spaghetti with meatballs and she ate it all. She even wanted MORE veggies and asked for some leftover roasted broccoli ‘on the side’. This is a big deal in our household. This recipe is a keeper!
gorgeous photos and yummy looking dish as usual!
My foodie movie picks:
In The Mood For Love (ah the rainy night noodle scenes!)
Like Water for Chocolate
Waitress
Woman on Top
Ratatouille
Tampopo
Julie & Julia
Food Inc.
Tried this tonight with vegetarian sausage (Tofurkey’s Kielbasa-style “sausage”). It was GREAT! Amazing flavor and texture contrasts: sweet, tender squash and salty, chewy sausage. Thanks for the idea.
We just made this dish, and OMG- we ate the whole thing!
We used sausage from a local company & chose a flavor called ‘King & Thai’ and the bit of kick made this dish shine. We skipped the Parmesan as dairy’s a no-go in our house, but I can only imagine it would make it better!
Made this last night and it was one of those simple and amazing food things that I’ll make a lot in the future. I want the leftovers, but I also want my husband to have them…..I better go buy another spaghetti squash.
I do a lasagna soup and that’s the way I cook my sausages. Now I’ll have to try with spaghetti squash. Brilliant idea! When I watch Chocolat I end up eating too much chocolate. 🙂
That is one fantastic dish!
Stunning pictures first time here I’m in LOVE! haven’t tried squash spaghetti must give it try, delish! 🙂
Amazing food photo. Beautiful dish.
You have reminded me that I need to revisit some of my all time favorite food films; Like Water For Chocoalte, Babette’s Feast, Big Night – and so many more. Each and every one of those films tingled all of my senses. But, it was one in particular that made me dash out of the movie theater, before the end credits, and get myself to the nearest pizza parlor: Mystic Pizza! I think this was the late 80’s and we saw the movie somewhere near Fairfax. We could not get to “Mr. Pizza” fast enough and probably ate the whole pie! On another note, I have not made spaghetti squash in over 20 years. With the addition of sausage and shallots, how could this dish possibly go wrong?