You don’t need expensive squid ink pasta to make this ghoulish halloween pasta dish with meatball eyeballs. Learn how to dye pasta so you can make your own halloween spaghetti using any colors you want!
When fall arrives, my daughter immediately starts pulling out the pumpkin decorations. Then she counts down until October 1st to start with Halloween decor!
To say that my family loves this time of year is an understatement. So every year we play with our food and get a little silly for Halloween.
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Why this recipe is so awesome
This time of the year, holiday parties start picking up. You can school class costume parties, office potlucks and neighborhood block parties. I have a great round up of halloween potluck ideas for you, including my halloween charcuterie board and this halloween spaghetti and meatball eyeballs.
Most of the time, when you see halloween pasta, the recipe includes fancy squid ink pasta. But I am going to show you how to dye pasta using any kind of pasta you have on hand – yes even the cheap stuff.
The result? I used black food coloring to create this spooky black spaghetti. You can use ANY pasta shape and ANY food coloring you want. This is such any dish to create at home and it won’t break the budget.
So whether you are cooking for a large crowd or just your family, you can easily upsize or downsize the quantities. This dish is also travel friendly and can be made ahead and reheated.
What’s not to love?!
Ingredients you need
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- Pasta: I used regular spaghetti, but you can use any pasta shape you want. You can also use bow tie pasta to make little bats.
- Food coloring: Gel food coloring is more potent than regular food coloring you find at the grocery store. This means very little go a long way. I used Wilton’s Color Right black, but you can use any color you want from their set of food coloring. Some other halloween color options include orange, green, purple and red.
- Marinara: You use store bought marinara or homemade. I love Trader Joe’s Marinara.
- Meatballs: I used my oven baked meatball recipe for this halloween spaghetti. You can also use store bought meatballs. Meatballs can be made a day or two before you serve this dish. You can also make them months before and freeze them.
- Mozzarella: For the eyeball whites, I used ciligene mozzarella cheese balls because I prefer their texture and flavor. And they melt nicely too. You can also cut rounds from cheese sticks.
- Black olives: For the meatball eyeballs I cut slices of black olives. You can also use green olives.
Step-by-step directions
- Cook the pasta. Boil salted water and add the pasta of your choice. Follow pasta directions for cooking times and cook until desired doneness. Drain pasta completely and run cold water over it to stop the cooking.
- Add dye. In batches, add drained pasta, 2 tablespoons of water and a few drops of gel food coloring in a gallon size resealable bag. If using regular food dye that is watery, you will need anywhere from 15-20 drops.
- Let pasta sit. Seal the bags and squish pasta around until pasta is covered in desired color. Let it sit for a few minutes to soak up the dye then transfer to a colander.
- Rinse the pasta. Continue coloring the rest of the pasta until done. Give final dyed pasta a rinse with cold water to remove excess food coloring. Pasta can be served right away or placed in the fridge to reheat and serve later.
- Serve. To serve, place pasta in a large serving bowl or platter and top with marinara sauce.
- Add meatballs. For each meatball, top with a round slice of mozzarella and a slice of olive. Place meatballs over the marinara and serve.
Expert tips and recipe FAQs
If you want to make this dish ahead of time, you can prep and freeze the meatballs until you are ready to serve them. You can also use already prepared meatballs and sauce to make the prep work easy on you.
Storing/Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: Store any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
TO FREEZE: You can also freeze leftovers pasta and meatballs. Transfer to a resealable bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 4 months.
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Halloween Pasta
Ingredients
- 25 meatballs
- 1 lb pasta
- 1 tablespoon salt
- Food gel or food coloring
- 6-8 cups marinara sauce store bought or homemade
- 13 ciligene mozzarella cheese balls cut in half lengthwise
- 25 black olive slices
Instructions
- I used my oven baked meatball recipe for this halloween spaghetti. You can also use store bought meatballs. Meatballs can be made a day or two before you serve this dish. You can also make them months before and freeze them.
- Boil salted water and add the pasta of your choice. Follow pasta directions for cooking times and cook until desired doneness. Drain pasta completely and run cold water over it to stop the cooking.
- In batches, add drained pasta, 2 tablespoons of water and a few drops of gel food coloring in a gallon size resealable bag. If using regular food dye that is watery, you will need anywhere from 15-20 drops.
- Seal the bags and squish pasta around until pasta is covered in desired color. Let it sit for a few minutes to soak up the dye then transfer to a colander.
- Continue coloring the rest of the pasta until done. Give final dyed pasta a rinse with cold water to remove excess food coloring. Pasta can be served right away or placed in the fridge to reheat and serve later.
- To serve, place pasta in a large serving bowl or platter and top with marinara sauce.
- For each meatball, top with a round slice of mozzarella and a slice of olive. Place meatballs over the marinara and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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Written by Laura Bashar
Hi, I’m Laura, a certified professional cook and cookbook author living in San Diego. I have been sharing my family’s favorite recipes inspired from all over the world since 2008. Let’s cook up something fun!
too fun! I want to make for a neighborhood party on Halloween. But does the food coloring make our teeth black??
Hi Rosemary-
For us it did not. You rinse off any extra dye from the pasta. And it all gets mixed with sauce, as well. I hope everyone enjoys it!
Laura