Cooking Through Fiction: Son of Neptune Spaghetti

I’m a sucker for happy endings and unlikely heroes who bring these happy endings. I like when the underdog wins. I release a happy sigh when the boy gets the girl or vice versa. I especially enjoy when someone doesn’t believe he or she has the stuff that heroes are made of, only to discover by story’s end that he or she is, in fact, the one who saves the day.

In Son of Neptune (a story that takes place in a continuation of the world created by Rick Riordan in the Percy Jackson series), Percy Jackson has amnesia. He can’t remember anything about his life but Annabeth. He ends up in a Roman camp for demigods, and instead of being the son of Poseidon (a Greek god), he becomes known as the son of Neptune.

Percy meets two friends (unlikely heroes), Frank Zhang, a son of Mars, and Hazel Levesque, a daughter of Pluto. The three of them go on a quest to free Thanatos, the god of death. The whole world depends on them. Will they succeed? Will they make it back alive? How about a comfort meal for Percy before we send him off into the land beyond the gods?

Son of Neptune Spaghetti

Serves: 1 box of spaghetti serves 8

Level of Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

1 box of spaghetti

blue food coloring

How to Make

1. Cook pasta according to the package directions.
2. Drain cooked pasta. Put into a Ziploc bag.
3. Add desired amount of food coloring drops (4-5 drops per 2 ounces of pasta) until the shade of blue you want is reached. Gently squish spaghetti and food coloring around in the zipped bag until all noodles are coated.
4. Serve warm and enjoy!

Trident Baked Mozzarella

Serves: 6

Level of Difficulty: Average

Ingredients

block of mozzarella

2 large eggs, beaten

4 tbsp flour

10 tbsp panko crumbs

2 tsp parmesan cheese

1 tbsp dried Italian seasoning

1 tsp chili powder

Directions

1. Slice across the entire mozzarella block, creating ¼-inch rectangular pieces that are the length and width of the original block. Using a paring knife or another small, sharp knife, cut out trident shapes.
2. Place tridents onto wax paper and place on a baking sheet. Put tridents into the freezer for at least an hour.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Remove tridents from freezer.
5. Beat eggs in a bowl. Place flour in another flat dish. Mix panko, parmesan, Italian seasoning, and chili powder in a flat dish.
6. One by one, dip tridents in flour. Then coat in egg mixture. Dip in flour mixture once more and then again in egg. Finally, coat in bread crumbs. Place tridents onto a greased baking rack that is placed on a baking sheet.
7. Bake for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown. Don’t overbake or cheese will ooze out and tridents will lose their shape.