Scary Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe, Halloween Style

What are we eating for dinner, you're kidding me?!?! That was the first reaction I got when I served this. Purple spaghetti, eyes staring at you and the blood (the bolognese sauce) dripping off. It did not immediately look super attractive to eat. But that is not the intention of this Halloween recipe.

When the troops actually started to attack, it turned out that the taste was very good. Because this fast and easy homemade bolognese sauce is the best recipe I know for this Italian sauce. And the combination with the small Mozzarella balls that are deliciously creamy and the salty olives was pure gold. And I was right, because after the first shock 😉 all plates were emptied. Scraped empty. The Halloween spaghetti bolognese was approved!

Halloween style, a bit different

Halloween is one of my favorite days. Why? Because at Halloween, your plate can look just a little bit different. And this plate with those creepy eyes fits the theme perfectly.

Maybe you think therefor it might be very difficult to prepare? Good news, because it does not take you more time than you normally need for this delicious recipe. You color the spaghetti in a nice eye-catching color and decorate the Mozzarella with pieces of olive, so that they look like eyes staring at you. And with a beautiful end result.

Why should you choose for this scary Halloween spaghetti recipe?

• maybe it does look a bit scary, but this homemade bolognese sauce is the best you will ever taste.
• you can prepare the sauce (which is the most time consuming) in advance. Prepare it up to two days in front, cool down quickly and store covered in the refrigerator. Or freeze up tot 3 months in an airtight container.
• or prepare a batch of bolognese sauce and freeze the remaining sauce. Then you've got a few dinners ready to eat on your freezer
• spaghetti bolognese is a crowd pleaser
• this recipe can easily be made for big parties and is suitable for your next Halloween buffet or party.
• although the recipe might look complicated and got a lot of ingredients, in reality it's a very budget friendly recipe.

Ingredients for this spaghetti bolognaise recipe

To prepare this scary spaghetti bolognese recipe, Halloween style you need the following ingredients. You can find the correct amounts in the recipe card at the bottom of the blog:

Bolognese sauce

• Olive oil: needed for baking the spices and ground beef. And off course it gives flavor to the sauce.
• Onion and garlic: to give your bolognese sauce extra flavor
• ground beef: a traditional bolognese recipe includes ground meat. Ground beef is delicious, but you can choose half pork / half beef ground beef or vegetarian ground beef for a vegetarian meal.
• Herbs: to get the traditional bolognese sauce flavor use a mix of Italian herbs like thyme, rosemary, basil and sage. If you can't get fresh herbs, use 2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs. The herbs can be cooked with sprigs. This way, you've to make sure to remove the herbs after cooking. If you want to leave the herbs with the sauce, remove the sprigs and chop fine.
• Bay leaf: gives a delicious flavor to this sauce. A bay leaf always has to be removed from the sauce after cooking.
• Tomato paste, peeled tomatoes and sieved tomatoes: this mix of tomatoes gives an intense tomato flavor. The tomatoes aren't fresh, though. Sometimes it is just better to use them from a can. Vegetables have the best taste when they are picked in their own growing season. As happens with canned tomatoes. But tomatoes that are on the supermarket in February have less flavor and are also less sweet. In that case, the canned tomatoes give a much better taste.
• Sugar: a little bit of sugar, flavors the tomatoes so they get more intense and much sweeter.
• Salt: to flavor the sauce

Purple spaghetti

• Spaghetti: fresh spaghetti is the best, but because you are making bolognese sauce, it is fine to use dried spaghetti.
• Salt: to flavor the spaghetti.
• Food coloring: to color the spaghetti. I used purple, but the choice is free. If you prefer a natural dye, add spaghetti, squid ink (nice black) or turmeric to the water.
• Olive oil: add the olive oil after cooking, so that the spaghetti does not stick

Topping

1. Mozzarella: use this as the eyes. If you can get mini mozzarella balls, then this is the easiest way. Otherwise, you slice the mozzarella in small cubes.
2. Green olives: the green olives can be cut in small cubes, which can be placed in the whole in the middle of the black olives.
3. Black olives: Slice the black olives in small rings. In the whole in the middle, you place a green olive slice.

How do you prepare this Halloween bolognese recipe?

You can find a printable recipe with a step-by-step description at the bottom of this blog.

Step 1: Start with the bolognese sauce. Fry the onion until it is translucent and briefly stir-fry the garlic with it. Add the tomato puree and fry for 2 minutes until it smells sweet. Then you add the minced beef that you fry until it's brown. And finally add the rest of the ingredients into the pan. Turn up the heat so that it boils while you stir. When it boils, turn the heat down as low as possible and put the lid on the pan

Step 2: Let it simmer for at least 45 minutes, but if you have more time, let it simmer even longer. From time to time (every 15 minutes), give the bolognese a quick stir.

Step 3: 20 minutes before eating, get a pan with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and bring to the boil. Add some drops of food coloring and then stir the spaghetti into the water. Let it cook until al dente (see the instructions), but if you prefer a somewhat softer pasta, you can extend the cooking time by 2 minutes. Drain the spaghetti and mix it with 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Step 4: While the spaghetti is cooking, cut the black olives into rings and the green olives into small pieces. On a plate, place the Mozzarella balls in front of you and first place a black olive ring on top and put a green piece of olive in the middle. Place the purple spaghetti on the plate and press the Mozzarella balls into the spaghetti. Drip some bolognese sauce over the spaghetti. Serve the spaghetti with the rest of the Mozzarella balls and bolognese sauce.

Top tips for making a delicious bolognese

• By baking the tomato paste for two minutes, the acidity will lower, and the paste will become sweeter. So don't skip this step.
• Following Italian tradition, cook the spaghetti in water as salt as the sea. So add 1 tablespoon of salt to the cooking water for more taste.
• Add olive oil after cooking to your spaghetti and not to the cooking water to prevent sticking. That way, the oil covers each sprig of spaghetti with a thin layer of oil, and it won't stick. And use, just like Italian families, a good extra verge olive oil for even more flavor.

Do you have leftovers?

It's always a possibility that you've got some leftovers after finishing. What can you do with them?

• If you have leftover bolognese sauce, let it cool quickly and store in an airtight container. This way it will keep for 2 days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.
• Do you have any olives left? Then make these delicious marinated olives and process them into a delicious appetizer, or make delicious Greek salad kebabs and serve them with dinner.