Spaghetti Bolognese Muffins

If you like spaghetti bolognese, you’re going to be a-loving these muffins!

Spaghetti Bolognese is one of my all time favourite dinners – I have my own “classic” version, a vegetarian version and even a low iodine version.

This is not the first time I’ve upcycled my bolognese, in the past, I’ve stuffed it in capsicums, filled it in pancakes and now I’m feeling the muffin loving!

I always make my bolognese in big batches, dishing up some for now and freezing some for later. These muffins are a great twist on an old classic and super easy to throw together.

Bonus points for them not being nearly as messy as bolognese. I personally face a lot of challenges with spaghetti bolognese because I am such a messy eater.

So much so, that when we went to Venice I treated myself to a spaghetti bolognese bib which you might be able to spot in some of these pictures! No bib required for these muffins though!

They’re delicious warm or cold and go great in a lunchbox and can also be served as a light lunch or supper with a fresh, green salad. And if you want to eat some now and save some for later, they freeze really well too.

You can make these in the oven or the pie maker, both with great results. They may not be the best looking thing to come out of your muffin tin but they’ll definitely be one of the yummiest.

Talking of the pie maker, I have a Kmart pie maker which has relatively small holes. I use 1/4 cup mixture for each pie maker muffin but if you have a different model and the pie holes are bigger, you might want to size up to 1/3 cup.

Do you have more than one bolognese recipe? What’s your favourite way to upcycle bolognese?

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

150g spaghetti

425g bolognese sauce

2 eggs, lightly beaten

50g plain flour

120g cheddar cheese, grated

20g parmesan cheese, grated

12 cherry bocconcini

How to – Oven

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Cut 12 squares of baking paper, scrunch them up and use the squares to line all the holes of a 12 hole muffin tin. If you don’t want to line with baking paper, lightly grease the muffin holes instead.
2. Break the spaghetti into 3 pieces and cook in boiling water for about 8 minutes or until tender. Drain and return to the pan.
3. Add the bolognese sauce to the pan and stir to combine.
4. Add the beaten eggs, flour and half of the cheddar and gently mix together. Season well.
5. Mix the remaining cheddar together with the grated parmesan.
6. Put 1/4 cup of mixture into each muffin hole, placing a bocconcini in the middle of each muffin and gently pressing it down.
7. Sprinkle a generous teaspoon of the mixed cheeses on each of the muffins.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cheese has melted and the muffins are golden.
9. Allow to cool in the tin before serving.

How to – Pie Maker

1. Preheat the pie maker. There is no need to grease the pie maker holes.
2. Break the spaghetti into 3 pieces and cook in boiling water for about 8 minutes or until tender. Drain and return to the pan.
3. Add the bolognese sauce to the pan and stir to combine.
4. Add the beaten eggs, flour and half of the cheddar and gently mix together. Season well.
5. Mix the remaining cheddar together with the grated parmesan.
6. Put 1/4 cup of mixture into each hole in the pie maker, placing a bocconcini in the middle of each muffin and gently pressing it down.
7. Sprinkle a generous teaspoon of the mixed cheeses on each of the muffins.
8. Cook in the pie maker for 8-10 minutes until the cheese has melted and the muffins are golden.
9. Gently remove from the pie maker and repeat with the remaining mixture.