Spaghetti squash
Cucurbita pepo · Squash
Top 10 pairings
Spaghetti squash (Cucurbita pepo) is the novelty winter squash whose cooked flesh pulls apart into long, mild, crisp-tender GOLDEN strands that look uncannily like pasta. An oblong, smooth, pale creamy-yellow gourd, it is unique among the squashes on this page in that its flesh is not soft and mashable but ribbon-fibred, separating into noodle-like threads at the drag of a fork — which has made it a favourite low-carbohydrate substitute for spaghetti.
Picking a good onedrag
Cured hard, just pickedSoft-spotted, weeping
Shop firmEveryday bestThe all-rounder: roast, soup, pie, curry.
StemHard and dry, cut short
Rind under a nailNail marks it, will not pierce
SkinMatte, one pale ground patch
Smell at the stemFaintly green, clean
These cues are Pumpkin's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
70%
Edible part
952 g flesh · rind, seeds and stem out
1360 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A whole one wants a cool room, not the fridge. Below 10 C the rind pits. Chill cut wedges.
50–70%
Humidity
Open and airy
Airflow