Is this thread sponsored by weight watchers or the American Diabeetus assn?

It makes perfect sense if you're not being a dick. I'm talking about spaghetti the dish, not spaghetti the pasta (which I'm pretty sure you knew). The Italian-American "spaghetti," which is typically spaghetti pasta with a tomato sauce, with or without meat.

I reject the premise that spaghetti can't have meat.

In that sense, does your spaghetti (the dish) need to have spaghetti (the pasta)? I say no. Other pastas are better suited, especially for meat sauces.

You say a lot of really good stuff here, especially about salting the water. (Though a couple handfuls is much - usually a couple tablespoons for 4 qts of water.)

You also mention basil. Important to note you don't want to cook the basil. Add it after taking it off the heat.

There are people that don't like ricotta?

Jarred sauce is an atrocity. I make my own gravy. San Marzano tomatoes, olive oil, fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, oregano, and a fresh basil sprig.

Some think it's gritty. I've found it's fine if you get the whole milk kind.

That looks horrifying and awesome at the same time.

If pasta sauce is gravy, the **** you call gravy then?

ROFL

Go to vail or sapho's for Thanksgiving and get a plate a mashed potatoes and ketchup!

Funny story. My in-laws hosted a foreign exchange student from somewhere in Russia back in the early 2000s. He'd never before seen ketchup, and loved it. He put it on everything, including mashed potatoes and corn. He drowned his food in it.

Yeah, definitely don't get the lower fat ricotta.

I've never done it, but I've heard fresh homemade ricotta is da bomb.

It's pretty easy, too.

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/f...ricotta-234282

I have a killer sauce recipe that i really only bust out when im making Lasagna. Using mostly fresh ingredients and making it entirely from scratch. It's fantastic with spaghetti too, but i rarely use it since it's about 2hrs total cook time, cooking low and slow. Best sauce i've ever had though.

Spaghetti, for my family at least, is mostly an "i'm broke and have limited time" dinner. So i usually buy the McCormick season packet, some caned tomatoes and slow cook it for about 20-30 minutes with the meat. Brown the meat with onion and garlic as per the usual and then boil the sauce with the meat.

The Italian food we typically see - especially the canned and jarred stuff - is as Italian as a can of van de camp's baked beans is KC bbq. You wouldn't listen to someone explain that a McRib is as legitimate as a Z-man. Or, I guess if you would, then God help you.

Also, overcooking the pasta is a huge problem. And no, throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks is not the solution.

You want to take it out of the water just when it passes from hard to al dente. It will keep cooking for a minute out of the water, so the timing matters. Mushy pasta is disgusting, and you lose that texture that makes it enjoyable to eat. But too early and it's just... gross and hard.

But, it seems like the real thing here isn't "spaghetti" but rather ragu. Ragu is dope - you can make it from a ton of different proteins (beef, pork, rabbit, duck, oxtail, wild boar aka Cinghelle).

The meat sauce we make is finely soffritto - a more finely cut mirepoix. Carrot, celery, onion, a little bit of garlic, olive oil. Slow cook those all down to softness. Then, add two parts ground beef and one part ground pork, and a half portion liver. Sear those off, then add a can of PLAIN (no basil or other crappy seasoning) crushed tomatoes. Add salt and slow cook. Traditional Bolognese also has milk, but ours is Milanese, so we don't usually do it. The milk makes it that softer red color.

A rigatoni - a large, tubular pasta with grooves on the outside - is the best for this sauce, because it captures the sauce inside and out. You want to add grated parmesan at the end.

We make huge batches, because it is also the basis of lasagna, along with layers of béchamel (NOT ricotta) and parmesan cheese.