Cowboy Spaghetti (Easy Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

How to make simple spaghetti better? ›

Use cherry tomatoes, fresh basil or other herbs, a peppery extra-virgin olive oil, fresh grated cheese. Swap out all the heavy ingredients for light ones. Instead of a thick cream sauce, toss the spaghetti with roasted vegetables. Serve your spaghetti on the side instead of as a main dish.

Add butter

Yes, that's right. Toss in a few tablespoons of butter, and let it melt into the sauce. If you've never tried it before, it might seem strange, but a little butter makes tomato sauce rich and smooth, and also balances out too much acidity, which is common in jarred sauces.

IF YOU COOK spaghetti in a big pot of water, drain it, then toss it with sauce, you are pouring a lot of flavor down the drain, says Vendemmia chef Brian Clevenger. “The trick to good pasta is cooking it in the sauce,” he says. It was while working at Delfina in San Francisco that he really started to understand why.

Boiling your pasta in less water in a large, shallow pan, will allow you to get the water boiling in 2-4 minutes, which gets you cooking faster. I use a large, wide pan that is only about 3 inches deep, instead of a large stockpot, and use only as much water as I will need to just cover the pasta.

Spaghetti (Italian: [spaˈɡetti]) is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta. It is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine. Like other pasta, spaghetti is made of milled wheat, water, and sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals.

In commercial pasta production the semolina is mixed with warm water and then is kneaded into a smooth, stiff dough. The dough is then compacted and mixed while it is forced through perforated plates, called dies. The sizes and shapes of the perforations on the die determine the shape of the pasta.

The magic lies in the seasoning – a simple yet potent mix of garlic, onion, cumin, and cayenne, creating some of the most tasty ground beef.

What meat goes best with spaghetti? ›

One of the finest cuts of beef to be served with pasta is chopped filet mignon. The tenderness of the steak paired with the flavor of the sauce creates an unforgettable pasta dish. Ground beef is often used to create the traditional spaghetti and meatballs we all know and love.

Although using a lean beef like ground sirloin already cuts some of the fat, draining the meat is one more smart step to preventing a greasy sauce.

But the real magic at work is the butter. The fat imparted by five whole tablespoons of butter mellows the acid from the fresh onion and the tomatoes. Because there is so much fat in the sauce, you don't need to cook the onions to rid them of acidic bite.

Starting with good quality tomatoes and crushing them by hand offers great flavor and texture later on. The combination of butter and oil releases fat-soluble aromatics and gives the sauce a creamy texture. Slowly cooking the sauce in the oven creates rich caramelization without burning.

Add a little milk to tomato sauce for a sweeter taste to offset the acidity of the tomatoes. This is a well-kept secret amongst Italian grandmothers. In northern Italy, Bolognese sauce is never made without milk! It can be added at the beginning or end of cooking.

It may sound a little unusual to add cream cheese to a pasta recipe, but it adds a tangy note and rich creaminess to the sauce. You can also add extra seasonings and other ingredients to the base recipe to fit your personal taste.

Cheese is an excellent way to add flavor to your pasta without having to rely on sauce. Try mixing your angel hair pasta with goat cheese, and toss in sun-dried tomatoes to make an amazing meal with just a few ingredients. Garlic butter is a terrific way to season all types of noodles.