With a brand new container of sumac on hand from my trip to the local spice shop last week, I did an internet search of my favorite food websites for unique ways to use this Middle Eastern spice. With its deep red color and slightly lemony taste, sumac is a wonderful spice to keep in the pantry for a number of dishes.  Take this dish for example from the NY Times Cooking website.

You start with baking a spaghetti squash until it is tender; you then sauté a bed of baby spinach with garlic (I added in some sliced, sweet red peppers as well), then you return the cooked squash strands to the sauté pan with some breadcrumbs for added crunch (and a touch more garlic.)  The spaghetti squash at this point is flavored with some of the ground sumac, and served with the sautéed spinach. But wait…we’re not done yet!  The entire dish is flavored with grated Parmesan cheese, buttery walnut pieces and the rich flavor of walnut oil.  Such a surprisingly wonderful combination of flavors!  (The only change I made  to the presentation itself was to reverse the plating order; I topped the spaghetti squash with the spinach sauté instead of the other way around.)

(To view this recipe, click on the following link: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017075-baked-and-sauteed-spaghetti-squash-on-a-bed-of-spinach)

Tagged: baked spaghetti squash, breadcrumbs, Cooking NY Times, sauteed spinach, spaghetti squash, spinach, squash, sumac, walnut oil, walnuts