The Simple Cutting Trick For Making The Longest Strands Of Spaghetti Squash

Once fall hits, it's officially winter squash season. If you're into the low-carb thing (or you're up on the plants as pasta food trend), spaghetti squash is likely your best friend. Unlike other types of squash, which typically get roasted so that their interior becomes soft enough to get cut into pieces or mashed up, spaghetti squash gets sliced in half and roasted or microwaved, but then you take a fork to the inside flesh and it turns, magically, into spaghetti-like strands. Most of us slice it lengthwise across the squash, but there is a way to cut it to get much longer strands.

To get the longest, most spaghetti-like strands out of your spaghetti squash, instead of cutting it lengthwise, cut it crosswise, around the middle of the vegetable. The strands of a spaghetti squash actually run around the interior in a circular fashion, versus in the long, oval shape, so by cutting the squash essentially "with the grain," you're preserving them, rather than cutting them in half.

Now let's take your newfound knowledge and put it into practice. Here are two ways you can use this cutting trick to prep your spaghetti squash for roasting. First, simply cut the squash in half, scoop out the guts, rub it with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, then pop the pieces in the oven (cut-sides up) and bake how you normally do (spaghettification doesn't alter the actual cooking process). Simple, straight-forward, and will yield you lots of long strands.

You can also cut your spaghetti squash into round discs, scraping out the insides of the circles to remove the seeds before prepping the squash the same way as described above to cook in the oven. Cutting the squash this way not only preserves the squash strands, it actually helps it roast faster, since there is more surface area exposed to the heat of the oven. It does require a bit more labor, since you'll have to make multiple cuts through the tough squash skin, so make sure to use your sharpest knife.