My daughter loves to get me to reminisce about the past. When I try to get her to eat certain things, she brings up my past food transgressions. As in, “Savta said you loved Kraft Dinner when you were my age..” or lovely tidbits like, “Savta said that you always refused to eat meat.” Well….
I can’t complain about my past. We were raised well and fed even better. Those Kraft Dinners were at our pleading and probably only served between the ages of 5 and 6. One of those forbidden foods that I remember well were Spaghettios. That ring shaped pasta from a can. It probably would taste awful to me now, but I do remember being a little twerp and enjoying it. Sprinkled with “parmesean” from a can – we gobbled that stuff up.
While wandering the aisles of Trader Joe’s a while back, I spotted some anelletti (ring-shaped) pasta. I knew I had to try making a copycat recipe of the spaghettios…well at least make it better. I vaguely remember Spaghettios being gloopy and had a somewhat sweet & tinny tomato taste. I didn’t want to recreate that part, but wanted to just recreate that warm comfort food aspect I remember. I wish I had my parent’s white vintage Denby bowls with the green leafs. That would really bring the dish home.
Here is what I came up with….nothing gourmet…just an attempt.
Homemade Spaghettios
Ingredients:
Anelletti Pasta – about 1/2 lb.
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup onion, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2.5 cups of tomato sauce (I used a roasted garlic marinara sauce)
3 tbsp. half & half
parmesean
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used a mixture of cheddar and mozarella)
2 tsp. italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
Cook pasta in salted, boiling water according to the directions on the package. Cook the pasta until it’s al dente.
In a pot, heat the olive oil and the butter together.
Saute the onion and garlic in the pot. Once soft, add in the tomato sauce. Slowly stir in the rest of the ingredients. Taste test the sauce. Stir in the pasta. Serve the pasta with a sprinkling of parmesean. Enjoy!
