Halloween Spaghetti With Edible Eyeballs

Halloween spaghetti with edible eyeballs is the perfect savory Halloween meal! It’s so easy to make that the kids can get involved, too!

Halloween spaghetti is a fun way to start the night before digging into the sugary treats. The idea came to me after eating at one of our favorite restaurants here in Nashville. I ordered a fabulous pasta dish made with squid ink pasta. When we got home, I ordered several boxes and knew the next challenge would be making edible eyeballs. About six hours and a lot of mozzarella cheese and black olives later, this simple, savory, and fun dish was on the table!

The challenge was making a dish that was fun to serve and delicious. I didn’t want to waste any of the ingredients. It needed to taste good! To keep the pasta completely black, you can’t add much to it. Tomatoes, parmesan, or pesto would all change the color, thus losing the desired effect. My kids grew up on buttered noodles, which are simple and perfect, but I wanted to jazz it up. A simple combination of butter, olive oil, garlic, and seasoning resulted in a flavorful butter and olive oil sauce for the pasta. I served parmesan on the side.

Halloween Spaghetti With Edible Eyeballs

What You Need For Halloween Spaghetti

• Squid ink pasta order here
• Butter, garlic, and olive oil to flavor the pasta.
• Mini mozzarella balls (Ciliegine)
• Black olives
• Disposable straws order here

Pro tip. Use black pasta made with squid ink, NOT black beans. Black bean pasta turns gray and doesn’t look the same.

How To Make Halloween Spaghetti

1. In a large pot, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.
2. While the pasta is cooking, make your eyeballs and flavored butter.
3. Add the butter, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper to a small pot.
4. Heat until the butter is melted, turn the heat down to low, and let it hang out.
5. Drain the cheese and the olives and lay them on paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
6. Cut each mozzarella ball and olive in half. (one mozzarella ball and one olive make two eyeballs)
7. Gently poke the straw into the cheese and twist it back and forth as you push it through.
8. Use the same technique for the olives – just be more gentle as they’re more fragile.
9. The straws will get soggy, so I cut each into thirds so I didn’t waste them.
10. To assemble the eyeballs, press the olive piece into the hole you made in the cheese.
11. Continue this process until you’ve made as many eyeballs as you want.
12. To serve, drain the pasta, toss it with the garlic butter, and tuck the eyeballs into the noodles.

Pro tip. While the butter mixture hangs out over low heat, check it often to ensure it’s not too hot, which can burn the garlic. All stoves are different, and some cook hot, mine included. Even on low heat, I have to watch things. If it’s getting too hot, you can move it on and off the heat so the garlic doesn’t burn.

How To Make Edible Eyeballs

Helpful Tips

• You’ll need four mozzarella balls and two black olives to make eight eyes. You’ll have a lot left over even if you buy the smallest package. If you mess up, don’t worry – you’ve got plenty to practice with!
• The cheese will get stuck in the straws, so I suggest using disposable straws. Cut each into three or four pieces to save on the number of straws. You don’t need one whole straw to make your holes.
• I got one “pupil” out of each olive half. Gently twisting the straw through the olive will usually pop it out on the other side. If it gets stuck in the straw, use your fingernail or a toothpick to coax it out gently.
• The rounded side will sit in your pasta once the mozzarella ball is cut in half. To make it look more realistic, make your “eyeball” on the flat surface of the cheese.
• Once you know how to make the eyeballs, the ideas are endless. Eyeball pizzas, eyeballs in rice, eyeball soup – to name a few!
• Hit up Dollar Tree for props. I spread black netting on the table and placed fake plastic spiders, snakes, and a spooky skeleton hand around the bowl.
• Halloween doesn’t have to be scary. You can use silly ghosts and pumpkins to make it less spooky and more fun. As a child, my son was easily scared, so we went out of our way to make more silly Halloween decorations.
• Hit up Dollar Tree for props. I spread black netting on the table and placed fake plastic spiders, snakes, and a spooky skeleton hand around the bowl.

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Halloween Pasta with Edible Eyeballs

Creepy pasta with edible eyeballs is the perfect savory dish to balance out all the Halloween sweets!

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Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 10 minutes mins

Total Time: 40 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 12 ounces squid ink linguini
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• Mini mozzarella cheese balls
• Large black olives
• Optional: Parmesan and crushed red pepper on ethe side.

Instructions

• In a large pot, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

Flavored Butter

• While the pasta is cooking, make your eyeballs and flavored butter.
• Add the butter, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper to a small pot.
• Heat until the butter is melted, turn the heat down to low, and let it hang out.

Edible Eyeballs

• Drain the cheese and the olives and lay them on paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
• Cut each mozzarella ball and olive in half. (one mozzarella ball and one olive make two eyeballs)
• Gently poke the straw into the cheese and twist it back and forth as you push it through.
• Use the same technique for the olives - just be more gentle as they're more fragile.
• The straws will get soggy, so I cut each into thirds so I didn't waste them.
• To assemble the eyeballs, press the olive piece into the hole you made in the cheese.
• Continue this process until you’ve made as many eyeballs as you want.

To Finish

• Drain the pasta, toss it with the garlic butter, and tuck the eyeballs into the noodles.

Notes

• Cut each mozzarella ball and olive in half.
• One mozzarella ball and one olive make two eyeballs.
• Gently poke the straw into the cheese and twist it back and forth as you push it through.
• Use the same technique for the olives – just be more gentle as they’re more fragile.
• The straws will get soggy, so I cut each one into thirds so I didn’t waste them.
• Press the olive piece into the hole you made in the cheese.
• Continue this process until you’ve made as many eyeballs as you want.

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