Braided Spaghetti Bread

I totally need to go to the grocery store. Big time. I’ve been stalling for days. I don’t know why. Maybe because in the summer all I want to eat is fruit. Or maybe I just needed something to procrastinate about that would make me actually fold the 5 loads of clean laundry sitting on my bed. Mission accomplished! Whatever the reason, I needed a solution for dinner that did not involve any fancy ingredients. I scoured my freezer and found a bag of frozen dinner rolls and a tube of chicken sausage. I knew there was a dinner in those ingredients, it just needed a couple pantry basics to make it work. A nice jar of marinara sauce, mozzarella and some pasta did the trick. This braided spaghetti was absolutely delicious, mondo easy and will most certainly become a part of my regular rotation.

I used Rhodes frozen dinner rolls. The same frozen rolls that provide awesome lemony goodness in my Lemon Monkey Bread. However, you could use your favorite pizza dough, crescent dough tube or any bread recipe you like that rolls out well. Start by rolling out the dough into a rectangle. Cut notches out of the ends and cut the sides into strips. For a step-by-step instruction on this technique, go here. That braid looks better than this one anyway. Boil some spaghetti and brown up some meat of your choice. Then stir together with your favorite marinara sauce. I used chicken sausage and Classico Tomato & Basil. Plop the saucy, meaty, spaghetti down the middle of your braid.

Top with mozzarella cheese cut into chunks. If I didn’t have the brick of cheese I thought was buried in my fridge, I was fully prepared to just cut up some string cheese and use that. No joke. I was feeling so unmotivated.

Starting with the bottom, fold over the strips of dough, stretching to cover the spaghetti.

Brush with egg and sprinkle with Parmesan, garlic salt and Italian seasonings.

All the deliciousness of spaghetti and garlic bread but it is all combined into one gorgeous loaf. It looks so fancy! You’d never know this is such a lazy day dinner.

How can layers of spaghetti and cheese sandwiched between bread be bad? Really. Explain it to me.

Yum yum yum!!

Braided Spaghetti Bread
adapted from RhodesBread.com

1 Loaf Rhodes™ Bread Dough or 12 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed to room temperature
1 pound chicken sausage, cooked until no longer pink (can use regular pork sausage or ground beef)
6 ounces spaghetti, cooked
1 1/2 cup thick spaghetti sauce
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 egg white, beaten
Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Instructions

Spray counter lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Roll loaf or combined dinner rolls into a 12×16-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 10-15 minutes. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain and let cool slightly. Remove wrap from dough & re-roll to rectangular shape. Combine sauce, cooked sausage and drained spaghetti. Place lengthwise in a 4-inch strip down center of dough. Top with cheese cubes. Make cuts 1 1/2-inches apart on long sides of dough to within 1/2-inch of filling. Begin braid by folding top and bottom strips toward filling. Then braid strips left over right, right over left. Finish by pulling last strip over and tucking under braid. Lift braid with both hands and place on a large, sprayed baking sheet. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, garlic salt and Italian Seasoning. Bake at 350°F 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly and slice to serve.