Sausage and Spaghetti Spiders

Those of you who read my other blog The Boy's Behaviour, will know that I'm attempting to make our summer holidays smoother by planning to the Nth degree. I've lovingly and carefully prepared activity packs which include everything needed for a variety of different activities. Some are ten minutes things, others are science experiments which take a number of days to finish, others are good for an hour or two. And they vary from crafts, to science things, to nature/wildlife to foodie makes.

The Sausage and Spaghetti Spiders came from an idea I saw on Pinterest. Along with providing half an hour of snapping, cutting and skewering, it also provided lunch for Mini and Dollop. So I made sure I did this activity with the children just before lunch, it meant they got to eat the results almost straight away :-)

Makes enough for 4 children:

1 tin of hotdog sausages (8 in a tin)
Dried spaghetti
Pasta sauce (we used a small portion of my versatile tomato sauce)
Cheese, grated

Put a large pan of water onto the hob and bring to boiling point. Whilst this is heating, ask the children to cut each hot dog sausage into 3 equal pieces - these will create the bodies. Make sure you supervise them when using knives.

Then have the children snap the spaghetti lengths into 3 or 4 pieces...they don't have to be equal, in fact we liked it when they weren't!

Push 4 pieces of dried spaghetti into each cut end of the sausage pieces. Push them in a little way being careful not to piece the sides of the sausage. They'll look something like this:

When each sausage has had all it's legs poked in, carefully place them into the boiling water. Cook until the spaghetti is soft and the sausages hot through. Remove each 'spider' using a slotted spoon.

Whilst the 'spiders' are cooking, heat up your pasta sauce. Then place a pool of it in the bottom of each child's plate/bowl. Serve 6 spiders per person, with an extra blob of sauce on top if required, and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

Here's a picture before we added more sauce and cheese...

Mini is something of a sausage connoisseur and wasn't particularly taken by the hot dogs, although he did eat it all up. Dollop on the other hand isn't at all fussy and wolfed the whole lot down! Hubby is also looking forward to 'testing' them with the remainder of the hot dogs!

My versatile tomato sauce

This is one of my favourite makes. My kids love pasta, and usually ask for it with this basic tomato sauce, which I make myself. It's a great sauce and is really versatile...I've used it as a base to mix with mince for bolognaise and lasagna; as a base for soup; served cold as a dip; on homemade pizza; as a layer in a spinach and ricotta quiche; and I also vary it by adding different herbs and sometimes vegetables that are a bit past their best to make a hidden vegetable sauce too.

No pics I'm afraid because it got wolfed down so quickly I didn't get a chance to get the camera out!

This recipe makes a really large batch, so I freeze half for another day:

2 tins of tomatoes (chopped or plum)
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic (or 1 cube if using frozen)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp dried oregano
A pinch of sugar
A little olive oil

In a saucepan, fry the onion in oil until just softening, then add the garlic. Fry for another minute or so, then add the tinned tomatoes.
I then half fill each can with water and add this to the saucepan. (This helps thin the sauce, but also rinses the tins for recycling too).
Let this come up to simmering point and then add the vinegar, sugar, oregano and puree, stir and continue to simmer for around 15-20minutes.
I use a stick blender to blend until smooth as neither I or the kids like lumpy tomatoes, but you could leave it with some texture if you prefer.

The longer you can simmer the sauce the richer it will be, but I'd suggest 15minutes is the quickest you'd want to do it.
If using other vegetables too, add them with the tomatoes - fresh tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms all work really well, but I've also used carrots and aubergines.You could also add fresh basil right at the end.
Wait until completely cold if freezing, and always let thaw before reheating thoroughly - you'll find it might split a bit when freezing, but it comes back together when reheated.