Tomato Basil Spaghetti Squash: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Okay, so I've been venturing into the world of squash lately, and today got my hands on two spaghetti squash. I was anxious to try it, so I looked up a recipe on Pinterest for Tomato Basil Spaghetti Squash and decided to give it a go. You can see the full original recipe here. I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I used the pictures provided as a visual guide, and freestyled it. (In hindsight, perhaps not the best idea, but I digress.)

First, I cut open my squash. I had read that this would be difficult, but it proved even more difficult than I had prepared for. You need a really sharp knife for this part. My cuts didnt look too appealing!

Once the squash was in two halves, I used a spoon to scrape out the inside. Then I rubbed it with vegetable oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I then turned them upside down on a baking sheet and baked them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Once they were done baking, I used a fork to pull out the spaghetti-like squash strings. I then layered them in a baking pan according to the pictures provided by the pinned recipe.

I layered the pan with the spaghetti squash, tomato slices, basil, parsely, and mozzarella cheese  (2x). The end result looked like this, a bit different from the recipe photo.

It looked beautiful, and I was excited to try it, but I must admit I did not like the taste. I noticed as I was gutting the squash that it smelled like pumpkin. It tasted like it's familial vegetable as well, in my opinion. Not a fan of pumpkin  (unless it's in a pumpkin spice latte or donut from DD lol)...

Though I was left disappointed in my new dish, I decided not to give up on spaghetti squash. There are many different ways to prepare it. I shall try another, and will report if there is any success.

Have you ever cooked spaghetti squash?  How did you prepare it?