Spaghetti Evolution

My current love affair: chicken ragu with chicken livers.

Spaghetti Bolognese, in all its forms, has been a constant favourite since I was a kid. I love it.

My best friend in grade 3 (a great friendship in my life!) was named Ashley. Her mom made spaghetti with tomato meat sauce for the first time that I was invited for dinner (I was so excited!). Alongside the pasta we had white bread slathered liberally with margarine, and Kraft cheese from the green shaker. It was made with ground beef and a jar of Prego or Ragu. I loved it. I remember eating it and thinking: This was the best thing I had ever eaten (to be honest, I sometimes still think this when I eat spaghetti!). 

We did not eat food like this at home. 

We ate a lot of home cooked, made from scratch, Khmer and South-East Asian food. Very, very rarely we ate food such as McDonald’s, or sometimes KFC or pizza or maybe even a buffet such as Uncle Willy’s (props to the Vancouver suburban kids who ate at Uncle Willy’s for Sunday dinner!). The food my mom cooked was so delicious and healthy. It was just that I loved spaghetti on first taste, and it was quite unfamiliar to me, unlike anything I had eaten before in my young life!

I went home and raved about. I asked my mom to please please please make it. And my wonderful brave mom did just that. 

The first few years of my spaghetti love affair featured lots of pre-made sauces from glass jars. My mom thought the sauces lacked flavour and nutrition so she added sauteed garlic, ground beef, and veggies such as bell peppers, celery, carrots, zucchini, onions, mushrooms broccoli - all of which I ignorantly and madly protested. When we could afford it, we were allowed to buy Kraft cheese in the green shaker. My mom loved that I loved this new food - it was cheap for her to make, and filled our little bellies. 

For me, it was another way for me to fit in. Sure I had a weird name, and ate a lot of weird, stinky food (which I loved, even as a kiddo!), and no dad in sight. But my sisters and I watched Full House every Tuesday at 8pm, and ate spaghetti every week just like the rest of my classmates. Eating spaghetti helped me feel like a normal, Canadian girl. Yes I know it’s originally an Italian dish, and I am never going to argue its roots. But if you grew up in Vancouver when I did, it seemed like lot of families ate spaghetti with tomato sauce with cheese from the green shaker every week for dinner too.

Over the years my mom and I started to add sausage, and we tried different noodles. It was really an exploration of a different cuisine for both of us. We tried using different cheeses and graduated to fresh Parmesan grated from a wedge, which we prefer. We also experimented with spice and herbs, both fresh and dried, and I now love a good sprinkling of chili flakes and the flavour of basil, oregano or thyme dancing lightly through the sauce. I don’t know what is traditional but I do know what is delicious to me. 

I also tried different types of pastas - seafood linguine, cream sauces, spaghetti “stoup’, lasagne…but I always came back to my first true love, spaghetti with tomato meat sauce. 

I usually bought a jar of sauce, but in my teens I started to experiment with making my own sauce from scratch. I usually gave up and veered back to a jarred sauce. My early attempts were bland and directionless. I didn’t read recipes and tried to improvise which was not particularly terrible but not amazing either. My mom was a great cook but Italian food, flavours and methods were unfamiliar to her. 

I was so poor during university. I lived with my youngest sister. We spent too much money on takeout (justifying it by finding cheap deals and making takeout meals last several meals), but in great bouts of energy (and money), my sister and I would make huge spaghettis, or soups or chilies. The Food Network was a better resource back then, and featured lots of shows with how to’s and best practices for cooking - this was great information. I had also read a few recipes at this point and had a bit more direction in my cooking. If we made spaghetti, we would still splurge on good cheese, and sometimes added sausage, but still bought tinned spaghetti sauce and the cheapest noodles possible. A huge pot of sauce could sustain us all week. 

I remember finishing my last final exam one year for Christmas term in my 2nd or 3rd year of university. It was early evening and I had just gotten paid too (party!). I stopped off at the grocery store on the way home and bought all the things to make a great tomato sauce with Italian sausage. I bought good Parmesan cheese. I went home and made myself an epic tomato sauce with spaghetti, poured some red wine, gorged and watched a movie to celebrate the end of my exams. It was the best night ever. 

Mmmm. Meaty, cheesy balls.

I graduated from university, got a grown up job, and lived with a boyfriend. I had a bit more money and a regular schedule that finally allowed me to cook more often. I started exploring recipes and blogs and started making my own Bolognese sauce from scratch on a regular basis. I experimented with sausage and different meats and fats, herbs, wine, stock and noodles. 

People at work started smelling my leftover spaghetti at lunch and told me how good my spaghetti looked and smelled, An Italian man even told me it smelled just like his mama’s! 

I became a bit obsessed with spaghetti Bolognese. I ordered it at restaurants, and compared it to my own. I took notes on what I liked and didn’t like.

I ate at a fancy Italian place in Las Vegas years ago. I ordered the simplest thing on the menu: spaghetti Bolognese (with hand made noodles). My meal was delicious while everyone else was disappointed with theirs. Everyone agreed: it was the best dish at the table. 

I broke up with my boyfriend and now lived with a roommate. I regularly read recipe blogs and food memoirs that sometimes included recipes. I learned to make a really good Bolognese sauce, and a marinara sauce I like to use for spaghetti and meatballs.

One book I read also included recipe for ragu sauce with chicken livers. I started reading more recipes that included chicken livers and decided to give it a try. I loved it. Ragu with chicken livers in a tomato sauce is my current most-favourite spaghetti sauce. It’s rich, satisfying, comforting, and delicious.

I like to make it on cold and rainy Friday nights (is there any other in Vancouver?). I put on my favourite music and chop away. I let the sauce simmer and it fills my home with an enticing and delicious smell. I make this sauce for my Love and I as we settle in to our Friday.

We have all night, and so much food. 

- Ratha

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(PC: Krista Stucchio on Unsplash)