All through childhood, I watched as the adults slaved away in the kitchen on holidays cooking enormous meals for the rest of the family. As a young, newly married adult, I again watched my parents or Brian’s parents cooking away in the kitchen, unable to relax, just enjoy the day, and really spend time with the family. When we moved into our current home, and finally had room, we joined in the holiday hosting rotation and got a first hand taste of what that actually means — you invite everyone into your home, but are busy babysitting the turkey and masterfully balancing all of the sides to make sure they are all done cooking at just the right time. Really, you’re busy all day, you don’t get to relax, and at the end of it all you’re completely wiped out.
Today when we cook a traditional holiday meal of barbecued turkey, savory stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and homemade turkey gravy, we typically do it NOT on a holiday and just for our little family. Don’t get me wrong, we still host holidays and big family get togethers, but now we cater them. We let someone else do all the work so we can relax with our family and enjoy our time together.
A couple of years ago, we began celebrating with my whole family a few days before Christmas to make the family holiday juggling game a bit easier for everyone. This makes catering much easier too!
Catering holiday meals means we get to enjoy a variety of different foods. One year we bought a whole bunch of soups from Panera, a variety of fresh breads, and all of the things needed for build your own paninis. Several times we have catered from the Mexican Food place close to our house and enjoyed a build your own chicken and carnitas taco bar with beans, rice, chips, and salsa.
This year we catered our family Christmas dinner from Bucca di Beppo. We ordered several different pasta dishes and entrees from Bucca di Beppo, picked up our favorite garlic bread from The Nugget Market, and everything for a chopped salad bar. It was delicious. I’m pretty sure everyone had seconds, and some people had thirds — and even after that, we had a ton of leftovers.
We ate pasta for days and yet, there was still some left. I didn’t want to eat it. I was over the leftovers. But I also didn’t want to waste the food, so I grabbed the rest of the Spaghetti Bolognese and wondered: Some people make spaghetti pie… How could I make this into something new and yummy?
The Spaghetti Bolognese Waffle
Then I had an idea: Can I waffle spaghetti? Can I cook the leftover Bucca di Beppo Spaghetti Bolognese in the waffle iron? How would spaghetti waffles work? How would the pasta stick together?
I hate food waste, so most of our waffle recipe experiments come from trying to use up leftover food in a way that makes a whole new yummy meal.
Needless to say, I have a bit of practice in this realm.
While the waffle iron heated up, I scraped the remaining Spaghetti Bolognese into a bowl, added two eggs, salt, pepper, and oregano, and dug through the refrigerator to see what kind of cheese we had. I found half a bag of shredded Parmesan and I knew that was it. I added all of the Parmesan cheese — about 1/2-2/3 cup — to the bowl and mixed it together really well, until I couldn’t see any inkling that eggs were added.
I then piled all of the spaghetti mixture into the waffle iron, closed the lid, and waited with anticipation. I have to be honest, I was a little worried the cheese would stick and melt to the waffle iron and it was difficult to let it cook without opening the kid a hundred times to check on my spaghetti waffle. But then the waffle iron beeped and it was ready.
Best Waffle Ever
We’ve made a lot of amazing, creative waffles. But…
I can’t even eat dairy, and after one bite, I claimed the entire spaghetti waffle as mine, popped a dairy pill, and ate the whole thing in record time. I wanted more. I needed more. But that was the last bit of leftover pasta we had in the house. I’d be lying if I didn’t think for just a second about placing a Bucca di Beppo take out order for more Spaghetti Bolognese just to make these waffles again.
The eggs worked perfectly to bind the spaghetti together. The added salt, pepper, and oregano added a fresh flavor, and the cheese, oh my goodness, the cheese. The Parmesan cheese did crust up and made this crunchy, delicious outer coating to the spaghetti waffle that was to die for.
Parmesan Spaghetti Bolognese Waffles
Create a whole new delicious treat from your leftover spaghetti by waffling it! The added Parmesan cheese crusts up to make a crunchy outer coating that is to die for.
Prep Time
Cook Time
Total Time
Ingredients
- 1 cup leftover spaghetti
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese
- Oregano
- Salt
- Black Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat waffle iron on medium heat.
- Transfer your left over spaghetti to a large mixing bowl. For every 1 cup of spaghetti, add one egg and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese.
- Season with salt, black pepper, and oregano as desired and mix all ingredients together until the egg is completely mixed in.
- Pile all of the spaghetti mixture into your waffle iron, close the lid, and cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the cheese starts crusting. Serve immediately.
Notes:
For my spaghetti waffles, I used about 2 cups of leftover Spaghetti Bolognese, 2 eggs, and 1/2-2/3 cups Parmesan cheese and piled it all in one side of my double waffle iron to make one, big, thick waffle.
