Spaghetti Spring Rolls

Yes, really. Spaghetti. Leftover spaghetti with spaghetti sauce. Cheese. A little ground beef.

In egg roll wrappers.

Kind of in the spirit of spaghetti tacos, only deep fried in a wrapper.

Yes. I went there.

But not alone. I had help.

Here’s my able assistant, my sweet little sous chef.

With pearls and heels and a wide skirt, she’d also pass as a 1950’s housewife.

So here’s what we did.

We had leftover spaghetti from a recent meal, so I had Julia chop it up a bit so there wouldn’t be any really long strands. I figured it would be easier to handle that way.

She took her job very seriously, dividing the spaghetti into smaller portions, chopping quickly (with a table knife – no more slicing and dicing of digits in this family) and confidently and then placing the finished batches in a bowl.

She loves to cook.

Anyway, to the chopped spaghetti I added some spaghetti sauce (not too much – didn’t want the filling to be soggy), a little shredded mozzarella and shredded cheddar that we had in the cheese drawer, plus a bunch of grated parmesan. And we had two cooked burgers left from the other day, so I had Julia break those up into little bits and we tossed those in the bowl as well.

Then Julia mixed everything together.

Mmm, yummy. We could have stopped right there and dished it up. But no. There was more to do….

I showed Julia how to roll up the spring rolls, and she did a very good job.

We ended up with 23. She did about two thirds of them. Some came out better than others, and a couple of them split while we were rolling them, but we weren’t going for pretty here. Just for yummy. And silly, to be honest. Spaghetti spring rolls? Silly for sure.

I deep fried them in batches and let them cool and drip excess grease on a cooling rack over a broken down cereal box on a cookie sheet. I also sprinkled more grated parm over them as they came out of the oil.

When they were all fried, I put them in the warming drawer of my oven while I warmed up some more spaghetti sauce (for dipping) and Bill put together a salad from the garden – assorted greens, freshly picked asparagus, radishes, and strawberries. (For those of you concerned with this deep fried starch post, rest assured we eat a lot of salads here. I just don’t write about them because we just throw them together as a matter of course and I don’t think to take pictures of them because they’re about as common as drinking water around here. Spaghetti spring rolls, however, are new.)

Anyway, here’s what they looked like on the inside.

Personally I’d have liked them better without the chunks of meat. I think next time around (if there is one) I’d start with ground beef, brown it gently with some chopped onion and garlic, add sauce to that and then add it all to the spaghetti. Smaller bits of beef rather than chunks.

But overall, these were a pretty big hit with the family. Something different to do with leftovers. And – most important – Julia and I had fun putting them together.

That was the best part. Cooking – and being silly and laughing a lot – with my daughter.

5 Comments

I love the way you utilize leftovers! I always have aspirations to do something like that but don't have the skills to make it happen so appetizingly.

Last night's dinner was huli huli cous cous. LOL

These would be yummy if reduced to bite-size for a party!

Posted by: RoseAnn | May 22, 2012 at 10:52 AM

You're so inventive! I may have to make some spagetti tonight JUST do to this! Yumyum!
And Julia - oh my gosh! I'm used to seeing photos of her from 2005! [I'm going through your archives... hehe.] I keep forgetting she's not a kid anymore! :D

Posted by: Donna B. | May 22, 2012 at 01:54 PM

These look totally decadent and I am sure they tasted as such. How lovely that you have a sous chef to help out. I am hoping my son (now 2.5 years) will be a help in the kitchen eventually.

And, I was really sorry to hear about you finger episode. I hope you are healing okay.

Posted by: sandra | May 22, 2012 at 02:41 PM