This Halloween Spaghetti recipe is the perfect spooky treat for Halloween night! Fuel up your trick-or-treaters with delicious pasta, homemade tomato sauce, and easy-to-make mozzarella eyeballs.
The time has finally come. Yes, it’s Halloween time! Spooky season, fall, autumn, whatever you like to call the month of October is fine by me, as long as you’re on board to make up some scary edible Halloween recipes!
There are plenty of treats, snacks, and appetizers that are themed for Halloween, (like Halloween Taco Dip and Candy Corn Jello Cups) but not so many main dishes.
This is why I’m sharing this super fun recipe for Halloween Spaghetti today!
Halloween Spaghetti starts with a simple and quick pasta sauce. It’s sweet and tangy with fresh garlic and basil.
You can serve this sauce with spaghetti any day of the year, but if it’s Halloween, you better be serving it with these realistic-looking mozzarella ball eyeballs!
Mozzarella eyes for Halloween are fun to put together, made from a round ball of cheese, pieces of black olives, and good olive oil to create the green irises of the eyes.
Need another spooky fun dinner idea? Try Halloween Pumpkin Soup with Grilled Cheese!
Halloween Spaghetti Recipe Highlights
- Delicious Homemade Spaghetti Sauce – This vegetarian pasta sauce is made with crushed tomatoes and seasonings, and comes together in only about 20 minutes. It’s a lightly sweet sauce with the warmth of garlic and the bright floral note of fresh basil.
- Realistic Edible Eyes – I played around with this for a while until I got the eyes just right! I love how the olive oil and black olive pieces create a realistic-looking eyeball with a sort of sickly green iris. Mozzarella eyeballs are perfect for Halloween and a nice change from the typical spaghetti and meatballs.
- Kids Love This – Save this recipe for Halloween night to fuel up your family for a night of trick-or-treating or celebrating with friends. Or, get the season started early and surprise them with pasta for Halloween earlier in the month.
Key Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make this spooky spaghetti recipe:
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Spaghetti: You could technically serve this sauce with any pasta shape, but little nests made from long spaghetti noodles have a wonderfully spooky vibe to them that you won’t get from penne or rotini.
- Tomatoes: The tangy flavor of this sauce comes from canned crushed tomatoes and tomato paste.
- Brown Sugar: I’m using dark brown sugar to give this sauce a bit of sweetness. You can also use light brown sugar, but you’ll want to use a bit less since it’s sweeter.
- Balsamic Vinegar: A wonder ingredient that gives the sauce sweet, savory, and umami notes.
- Baking Soda: This is many a grandma’s secret trick to reducing the acidity of tomato sauce. You won’t taste it, but you will get a beautifully balanced flavor without any acidity or bitterness.
- Mozzarella Ciliegine: If you’re not familiar with this, ciliegine are small balls of fresh mozzarella that are about the size of a cherry. These are the perfect size for our mozzarella eyes!
- Black Olives: We’ll use a straw to create small black circles from black olives. It’s fun and easy!
- Olive Oil: You’ll use regular olive oil to saute the onions for the sauce, but for the eyes, you should use a good quality extra virgin olive oil. You want that green color.
How To Make Halloween Spaghetti
Tip!
It is easier to put the mozzarella eyeballs together when they are already plated, but you can assemble them on the cutting board if you prefer, and then transfer them to the platter.
Tip!
Have fun with this! Don’t overthink the creative process here, the eyeballs will look perfect no matter what!
Recipe Tips
- Recipe timing: While the sauce is simmering, boil your spaghetti and start prepping the mozzarella balls.
- If you don’t have straws, look around your kitchen for something else to use! Piping tips can work as cutters, or you can just carefully use a paring knife to make the circular cuts.
- If your black olive pupils don’t want to float in the oil, trim a little bit of weight off the back of the pieces and that should solve the problem.
- Serving tip! Sprinkle the mozzarella eyeballs with a little bit of salt just before serving to really make the flavors pop.
- Make individual plates instead of a large platter. I made larger spaghetti nests that fit two mozzarella balls, and they turned out so cute!
- Try this with any sauce! My meat sauce with hidden veggies will work with this spooky setup too!
Storing Tips
Once your platter of Spooky Spaghetti is created, it will be best to enjoy it right away. If there are leftovers, I suggest storing the mozzarella balls separately from the pasta and sauce. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.
What To Serve With Halloween Spaghetti
Did you see that black thing on the side of my plate? It’s spooky garlic bread! Use my easy garlic bread recipe, but add a few drops of black food coloring to the garlic butter mixture. So fun!
You can also add black food dye to the water that you boil the pasta in. It will dye the pasta a purplish/black color that is super fun for Halloween!
Another perfect side dish for this Halloween Pasta recipe would be my Witch Finger Breadsticks. They’re simple to make and have a spooky-scary vibe too.
Recipe FAQs
Do I need to add sugar to spaghetti sauce?
While you don’t technically need to, the brown sugar in this recipe helps to balance the acidity of the tomatoes and give the sauce a beautiful flavor. You can adjust the amount to your preference if you like.
What can I use in place of dark brown sugar?
Any type of sweetener can be used, but you’ll want to adjust the amount based on which type of sugar you use. For granulated sugar, use only 2 teaspoons, and for light brown sugar, start with 3 teaspoons to replace the 1 ½ tablespoons of dark brown sugar.
Can I use another type of sauce?
Of course! Make this an even easier recipe and use your favorite jarred pasta sauce in place of the homemade version.
Spooky Halloween Spaghetti is the perfect dinner to make for Halloween this year! Pin this recipe so you have it ready for the special day!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Halloween Spaghetti
Equipment
- Straws one regular, one wide
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 medium white onion minced
- 6 large cloves of garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) tomato paste
- 1 ½ tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoons (15 ml) balsamic vinegar
- 2 28-oz (1.6 l) cans of crushed tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
- ½ cup chopped basil
- 1 lb (450 g) spaghetti noodles cooked
Eyeballs
- 8 oz (225 g) fresh mozzarella ciliegine
- 8-10 large pitted black olives
- 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, minced onions, and minced garlic to a medium or large heavy bottomed pot. Saute over medium high heat until fragrant and golden.
- Add tomato paste, brown sugar, and balsamic vinegar to the garlic and onions. Saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the crushed tomatoes and the seasonings including the baking soda, stir well. Bring to a simmer.
- Once simmering add the fresh basil and parmesan cheese. Stir to combine, then cover and simmer for at least 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- While the sauce is simmering you can make the mozzarella eyeballs. Start by draining and lightly rinsing the mozzarella balls.
- Use a wide mouthed straw (boba style works great) as a cutter, gently press one end of the straw about halfway through the mozzarella ball, do not puncture all the way through. Remove the straw and use a small paring knife to remove the small circle of mozzarella that the straw cut. Do this to all of the mozzarella balls, set aside.
- Slice all of the olives in half lengthwise. Use an averaged size drinking straw as a cookie cutter to cut small circles out of the olives, these will become the pupils of the eyes, cut as many as you have mozzarella balls. Set aside.
- To serve on a large platter, create nests of the cooked spaghetti noodles by twisting around a fork then slipping off the fork onto a platter. Spoon the hot sauce over the top of the spaghetti.
- Place one mozzarella eyeball onto the top of each spaghetti nest. Using a spoon or a dropper, carefully fill each mozzarella ball with olive oil, then place one of the pupils in the middle.
- Garnish with fresh basil and fresh parmesan if desired.
Notes:
- If you don’t have straws, look around your kitchen for something else to use! Piping tips can work as cutters, or you can just carefully use a paring knife to make the circular cuts.
- If your black olive pupils don’t want to float in the oil, trim a little bit of weight off the back of the pieces and that should solve the problem.
- Serving tip! Sprinkle the mozzarella eyeballs with a little bit of salt just before serving to really make the flavors pop.
- Make individual plates instead of a large platter. I made larger spaghetti nests that fit two mozzarella balls, and they turned out so cute!
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Joe OReilly says
Why would you add baking soda to tomato sauce?
Little Sunny Kitchen says
Baking soda helps to tone down the acidity of the tomatoes. You can leave it out if you like.