Spaghetti supper was the first savoury dish Emily learnt to cook with Bibi, and the first she cooked on her own. It is one of the easiest recipes we make, and yet a real favourite, and so quick to make. We don’t quite understand what makes it so good – it has a richness and creaminess that the simple ingredients don’t seem to suggest. We strongly suggest you give it a go!
This recipe only has four major ingredients, and takes less than twenty minutes to cook, but makes for a very satisfying dinner. You only really need to fry onions, grate cheese and cook pasta to have a great supper on the table in minutes.
Start by chopping your onions, you can find out more in our onion Tip. You need a generous amount of onion and want them chopped quite large for this dish as they are the only vegetable and a key textural and flavour element. Today, making the dish for two of us, our onions were quite small so we used three. If they were really large we would use two. Brown or white onions are best for this dish.
Now grate your cheese. We use cheddar and think it’s the best choice for this dish so you get that creaminess that is its signature. Grate the cheese fairy roughly, and be generous. We used a drum grater today as we prefer them (and you are less likely to grate your hand!) but any coarse grater is fine.
Now get your water on to boil. For cooking pasta you need a large amount of water that is at a hot, rolling boil. We use a pasta pan with an internal colander, but a large saucepan and a separate colander or sieve is fine. Just make sure your water is really bubbling and boiling before you add the spaghetti. Add a pinch of salt – this not only adds flavour but keeps the water hotter.
Now add your spaghetti. We measure the portion by eye – a large handful – but you can weigh it. About 100g per person is a good portion. Spaghetti is long and needs to be pushed down into the water and spread out. Gently push it in a bunch into the pan, and as the bottom softens (which happens quickly) you can press it down, then fully submerge and mix it with a pasta server or wooden spoon once is is soft enough, a minute or so. Cook for the time specified on the packet, usually about 10 to 12 minutes.
While your pasta is cooking, fry your onions. For this dish you want onions that are slightly softened, but still retain a little crunch. Fry them over a low to medium heat, stirring, until they are slightly translucent and a little soft but still have some texture. They should be pale, not brown, for this recipe. Today ours took about 5 or 6 minutes to get to this point. We fry them with a large knob of butter and a splash of olive oil – butter gives a nice flavour, and oil prevents it from burning. Do be generous with the butter as again it adds to the creaminess of the finished dish. Add your onions when the butter is fully melted and sizzling slightly. Your onions are done when they look like the third picture below.
When your pasta is cooked – test a strand by biting it, it should be soft and silky with no chalkiness in the centre, but still some body – drain it and return to the hot pasta pan, setting it over a medium heat.
Add the onions to the pasta, along with any butter in the pan. Now add tomato puree – how much depends on how much pasta you have. Today we used about two large tablespoons. You need enough to coat the pasta, and however much you use, add the same amount of boiled water – in our case two tablespoons. Mix everything really well – a pasta server helps. You pasta should have an orange look and be well coated – add a little more water and or puree if this isn’t the case.
It is tricky to mix the onions in fully and there will inevitably be some left in the bottom of the pan. Just spoon these out and add on top of the pasta when you serve. Serve topped with a large amount of cheese.
Enjoy!
