It took me years to perfect my spaghetti. Although it’s a very easy dish to cook (as I think it is now), I started cooking Italian only about 5 years ago. I bought a small recipe book about how to cook simple Italian dishes. My version of spaghetti is an asian fusion (or whatever that means he he he) – sweet spaghetti everybody loves back home w/ some Italian touch ala-Sopranos (this is what I get from watching it).
Ingredients for the Spaghetti:
1/2 kg. ground pork (no fatty parts as much as possible to avoid an oily dish)
1 cup of sliced hotdogs
2 tomatoes
3 tbsp. garlic, finely crushed
1 onions finely sliced
1/4 cup of cubed carrots
1/2 cup of cubed mushrooms (for me, any type of mush room will do)
1 bottle of catsup (choose a sweet tomato brand, not the sour one)
2 tbsp. of sugar
salt & pepper
about 2 cups of water
Italian herbs (a combination of basil, capsicum, oregano, parsley, rosemary, garlic, etc. w/c u can buy in a small bottle from the grocery)
3 tbsp of cooking oil
3 tbsp of butter
parmesan cheese (any quickmelt cheese will do or grated cheddar cheese)
cooking oil
500 g. uncooked pasta
Ingredients for the pasta soup:
2 tbsp. garlic, finely crushed
1 onions finely sliced
1/4 cabbage, sliced
1 potato, cubed
1 carrot, sliced into wedges
2 pcs of bacon, sliced (optional)
1 cup of cream
salt & pepper
italian herbs
In a pot of boiling water w/ a little cooking oil & salt, drop the pasta & cook over medium heat (constantly stirring) until al dente. Drain the cooked pasta & set aside the water used for boiling it.
In a large saucepan, fry the garlic in little oil & butter over low heat until golden brown. Set aside some of it for the pasta soup. Add the ground pork (w/ little salt) & cook over medium heat until a little brownish. Add the onion, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms & ham. Stir-fry. Pour a cup of water (get from the water used for cooking the pasta), then add the sugar, salt, pepper, & catsup. Cover & simmer until the tomatoes are crushed & the sauce is thick. According to Furio of The Sopranos, don’t make it soupy like those they serve in american fast food restaurants. Sprinkle w/ parmesan cheese & Italian herbs.
A tip from HBO’s The Sopranos: the secret to a good italian spaghetti is to cook the pasta a little bit more w/ the sauce while constantly stirring it for about 5 minutes (as i remember it in one particular episode). So that’s exactly how i do it. Mix the pasta w/ just enough sauce (set aside most of it in a serving bowl) over low heat for about 5 minutes. That’s it! Pour the sauce over your spaghetti serving & sprinkle more parmesan cheese & Italian herbs!
The pasta soup, on the other hand, is like cooking chicken macaroni soup minus the chicken. Fry the sliced bacon for about 3 minutes. Add the onion & stir-fry for another minute. Add the water used for cooking the pasta as the pasta adds a different flavor to the soup. Bring to boil. Add salt, pepper, the potatoes & carrots, & boil until the potatoes are almost done. Then add the cream & bring to boil over medium heat w/ constant stirring. Add the cabbage & Italian herbs, & bring to boil. Sprinkle w/ fried garlic & serve hot together w/ the spaghetti.
Unexpectedly, our interpreter came & had lunch w/ us. She liked my spaghetti as it is more appealing to the mainland chinese taste & her comment about my soup was that it tastes like pizza hut. Funny but for me it’s a compliment!
Related Articles:
Singing Spaghetti
Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner. – Sophia Loren
This looks good, Iska! Tasty and healthy too. I’d never thought one can learn cooking from a soap opera! Hehehe!
Question, what kind of cream should i use for this recipe?????? Thanks.