Spaghetti Questions

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HappyDaze
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Spaghetti Questions

Post by HappyDaze »

Do you all have any special way you make spaghetti - beyond the traditional "spaghetti with tomato sauce"? Like something different or jazzed up with veggies, olive oil, etc.? I have a bit of a "stash" - between mine and what my daughter brought - and we're looking for different ways to prepare it. Thank you.
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MackerelCat
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Re: Spaghetti Questions

Post by MackerelCat »

I like to add roasted eggplant and sauteed zucchini to marinara sauce. There's an Italian eggplant appetizer called caponata that has roasted eggplant in it. I used to find little cans of it and add it to the sauce. It was delicious. Have not seen it in years, though.

Those Morningstar Farm veggie sausages also are good chopped up and cooked with the sauce.
Mackie
HappyDaze
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Re: Spaghetti Questions

Post by HappyDaze »

MackerelCat wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 9:08 pm I like to add roasted eggplant and sauteed zucchini to marinara sauce. There's an Italian eggplant appetizer called caponata that has roasted eggplant in it. I used to find little cans of it and add it to the sauce. It was delicious. Have not seen it in years, though.

Those Morningstar Farm veggie sausages also are good chopped up and cooked with the sauce.
I LOVE eggplant sooooo much! My daughter is very allergic to it though - I won't even have it in the house while she is living here. When I can't stand it anymore, I'll go to a local pizza place and order half an eggplant sub and have it for lunch at work.

I have heard of caponata - maybe on food network or someplace a long time ago.

I cooked some mustard greens in butter and olive oil and added some balsamic vinegar, etc. and I'm having that over my spaghetti for tonight's supper - it's pretty good.
"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. After all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

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Jackielou
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Re: Spaghetti Questions

Post by Jackielou »

Usually just the tomato sauce on my spaghetti, but I have been know to grate up a few carrots and add them to the sauce as well.
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LWolfT
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Re: Spaghetti Questions

Post by LWolfT »

I will jazz up tomato sauce (or jarred pasta sauce) by sauteing onions and peppers. I also use eggplant, but I see that's not an option.

If you can get some fresh basil, pesto is easy to make — that's great on spaghetti. (There are recipes that don't use pine nuts — just garlic, basil and olive oil.)

If you like pumpkin (and I'm noticing cans of puree are on markdown these days) I like this recipe:

https://realfoodwholelife.com/recipes/tuscan-pumpkin-pasta-sauce/ Personally, I use either evaporated or regular milk rather than coconut milk, and dried herbs ...
frugalmom
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Re: Spaghetti Questions

Post by frugalmom »

HappyDaze wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:57 pm Do you all have any special way you make spaghetti - beyond the traditional "spaghetti with tomato sauce"? Like something different or jazzed up with veggies, olive oil, etc.? I have a bit of a "stash" - between mine and what my daughter brought - and we're looking for different ways to prepare it. Thank you.
Yes, we love Italian food and pastas of any kind! So I do sometimes extend the spaghetti with diced eggplant and diced mushrooms and onions. Or I make an eggplant parmigian from Clara's KItchen channel. Just slices of eggplant with tomato sauce and cheese and bake and put this on top of the spaghetti.

Now this is a hit with the kids. I take leftover hot dogs and slice them and stirfry these so little browned, Then mix this with the ground beef(I like it broken and cooked and minced not like meatballs),onion and garlic mixture in spaghetti sauce (I like Rao's or Prego with mushrooms). The hot dogs take it over the top believe it or not! I learned this from my Filipino friends as many of them do this and bring it to potlucks,etc and it is good! They also use a sweeter type of spaghetti sauce-I do not like my sauce sweet as Prego is sweet enough. I like Raos better does not seem sweet to me at all.

I like a simple spaghetti dish I make with stirfried brussel sprouts(or cut asparagus), pine nuts, and grated lemon peel, mix with olive oil,lemon and garlic powder,salt and pepper and sometimes red chile flakes.

Another one is garlic noodles-I just made this the other day. This is a Vietnamese or Thai dish-they serve it at famous restaurants over here. They usually serve it with garlic crab(yum). I served it with San Tung chicken wings I made (this is soooo good-basically fried chicken with cornstarch with a delicious sauce-there is a you tube recipe look up SanTung chicken wings-it is a famous restaurant out here). Just do not fry twice like one recipe said bc then it is all crisp and not meat-so fry it once. If you don't have corn syrup use honey which is really the original recipe and I cut that in part too bc I don't want it too sweet which it can become. But the garlic noodles, cook garlic pieces (a lot diced up) in butter and oil(so butter does not burn-at least that is what I do), add cooked spaghetti noodles with a little bit of its pasta water, add garlic powder too to taste,salt and black pepper and oyster sauce(key ingredient). Some say add fish sauce which gives it another dimension, but it is an acquired taste as some do not like this bc it makes it more salty. I like mine without fish sauce and more the garlic sauce. You can add diced green onions at the end (optional) and I like diced cilantro(optional-my own idea).

One more dish is Cincinnati spaghetti with chile (I use up leftover chili) on top and you can add diced red onions (optional)and cheese to make it really cheesy and it tastes good! I also use spaghetti for chow mein or a beef Asian soup kind of like Pho or Korean shortrib soup.
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