Although he is a big fan of my cooking, he couldn't imagine how such a dish could taste good. Don't worry Jeremy... Your dad will try it and then you will try it...and you'll wonder why you waited so long. Right, Sara-Beth?
Sara-Beth commented...
Oh Bert! What a delight finding you has been. I grew up with spaghetti and ketchup as a traditional family dish. My Russian immigrant grandmother made it for her daughters and the one who was her mother made it for me! To this day, it is my go-to crappy day comfort food!
However, our recipe does not add any pasta water, and we put a shameful amount of butter back into the heavy stockpot in which we boiled the spaghetti and then we squirt the ketchup all over, stirring with a fork to get that butter and ketchup distributed properly into the golden orange color and then we walk away and let it "burn" a little to get these golden (to black) crispy bits which we mix back in and crown portions of this dish with. Depending on how much crispy you got, was how much Mom loved you that night!
I have perfected this comfort dish, that up until today I thought only I ate and only when I was alone, by burning some and then redistributing the pasta on the bottom of the pot to burn more and repeating this until I have the perfect balance of soft and tender with crispy and fried!
YUM! And thanks for making me feel better about this dish - and myself - you took the shame out of my comfort food for me!
However, our recipe does not add any pasta water, and we put a shameful amount of butter back into the heavy stockpot in which we boiled the spaghetti and then we squirt the ketchup all over, stirring with a fork to get that butter and ketchup distributed properly into the golden orange color and then we walk away and let it "burn" a little to get these golden (to black) crispy bits which we mix back in and crown portions of this dish with. Depending on how much crispy you got, was how much Mom loved you that night!
I have perfected this comfort dish, that up until today I thought only I ate and only when I was alone, by burning some and then redistributing the pasta on the bottom of the pot to burn more and repeating this until I have the perfect balance of soft and tender with crispy and fried!
YUM! And thanks for making me feel better about this dish - and myself - you took the shame out of my comfort food for me!
