Editor’s Note: Elite Series pro Terry Scroggins has long been known as a great cook. In this column, he shares instructions on how to cook some of his favorite foods. See his other recipes for Pork tenderloin, Tequila chicken, Venison kabobs, Mustard fried venison, Beer can chicken, Peanut butter cup pie, Smoked ribs with red pepper jelly, Shrimp-stuffed jalapeños, Crab-topped grouper, Teriyaki injected tenderloin.
I like a quick and easy meal just as much as the next person, but there’s just something about adding your own flavor to a traditional dish that makes a little extra effort totally worthwhile.
And to tell y’all the truth, I try and add that extra bit of flavor every time I cook something.
In this case, when I make a traditional favorite – spaghetti – I like to throw the ground beef on to my grill with some wood chips mixed in my charcoal. This gives me a very distinct and really great smoky flavor with my beef.
Add that awesome flavor in with some great sauce, some excellent mushrooms and a piece of garlic bread on the side, and you’ve got an easy dish that will get the attention of a ton of folks.
GRILLED SPAGHETTI
Ingredients: 3.5 pounds of hamburger meat, steak seasoning (sprinkle), wood chips of your choice, 2 containers of spaghetti sauce, mushrooms, white wine (Moscato – sweet wine), spaghetti noodles, olive oil, oregano and minced garlic.
Tools needed: Grill, strainer, cookware
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Add your charcoal and wood chips of choice and light your grill. The wood chips will give your meat a bit of a smoky flavor.
Create 6-7 patties (it differs for the amount of spaghetti made). You can do this by hand or with a patty maker. Place in a tray. (Grilling kills most of the grease.)
Season patties with your choice of grill seasoning. I use McCormick’s Montreal Seasoning.
Then, throw the patties onto the grill and shut the grill door. Let cook for 6-7 minutes, or until fully done. (Flip halfway into cook time.)
Wash your mushrooms and place into a strainer to let water drain.
Dump your sauce into a pan and turn on a medium-high heat.
Cut hamburger patties into chunks and dump into sauce.
Add a fair amount of minced garlic into your sauce (for our portion, I added around 16 ounces) and stir together.
Cover sauce with lid and turn heat down to medium.
Pour whole mushrooms into a separate pan and add your Moscato all around. I used around 5 ounces.
Add approximately 2-3 ounces of minced garlic, a pinch of seasoned salt, and a pinch of oregano to the mushrooms. Cover with lid and turn on medium heat.
Let the sauce and mushrooms simmer for around 30 minutes with medium heat.
Fill a pot with 3 quarts of water and add around an ounce of olive oil. Cover water with lid and bring to a boil.
Grab a handful of spaghetti noodles, break them in half, and add to boiling water. Stir in water and add lid back to top of pot. Let noodles soften for around 10 minutes.
Drain liquids from mushrooms and set to the side.
Dump Spaghetti into strainer, draining liquids, and add one half a stick of butter.
Plate the spaghetti, add your meat sauce and mushrooms on top of the pasta, and provide your guests with a breadstick on the side.
Terry Scroggins’ column, Big Show’s Big Eats, appears monthly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Twitter or Facebook.
