Posted on 01/04/2023 7:57:11 AM PST by Red Badger
NATIONAL SPAGHETTI DAY
National Spaghetti Day on January 4th offers an opportunity to pick your sauce and add it to that long, thin cylindrical pasta of Italian and Sicilian origin. Usually made from semolina flour, this pasta has been a worldwide favorite for ages and loved by millions.
#NationalSpaghettiDay
There are various pasta dishes based on spaghetti, and the sauce determines most of them. Some examples include spaghetti ala Carbonara, garlic and oil, tomato sauce, meat sauce, bolognese, Alfredo sauce, clam sauce, or other sauces. In addition, we traditionally serve spaghetti dishes topped with grated hard cheeses such as Pecorino Romano, Parmesan, and Grana Padano.
The word spaghetti is plural for the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning “thin string” or “twine.”
American restaurants offered spaghetti around the end of the 19th century as Spaghetti Italienne (which is believed to have consisted of noodles cooked past al dente and a mild tomato sauce flavored with easily found spices and vegetables such as cloves, bay leaves, and garlic). Decades later, cooks added oregano and basil to many recipes.
Spaghetti Origins
There is a significant debate on the origin of spaghetti. However, we do know that we’ve been consuming pasta for many, many years. There are records in the Jerusalem Talmud of itrium, a kind of boiled dough commonly available in Palestine from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD. A 9th-century Arab dictionary describes itriyyaas as string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking. A 1154 writing for the Norman King of Sicily, mentions itriyya as being manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily. Dried pasta became popular in the 14th and 15th centuries due to its easy storage. People stored the dried pasta in ships when exploring the New World. A century later, pasta was present around the globe during the voyages of discovery. (Wikipedia)
On Top of Spaghetti
In March of 2009, the world record for the largest bowl of spaghetti was set and then reset in March of 2010 when a Garden Grove California Buca di Beppo restaurant successfully filled a swimming pool with more than 13,780 pounds of pasta.
Sung to the tune of “On Top of Old Smoky,” the fun children’s song, “On Top of Spaghetti,” was written and originally sung by folk singer Tom Glazer with the Do-Re-Mi Children’s Chorus in 1963.
“On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.”
COOK, EAT, CELEBRATE
Make your favorite spaghetti dish, and be sure to make enough to share. Of course, you can always invite friends to join you at your favorite Italian restaurant and split a plate. If you do, be sure to tag the restaurant and use #NationalSpaghettiDay to post on social media.
NATIONAL SPAGHETTI DAY HISTORY
National Day Calendar continues researching the origins of this pasta-loving holiday.
Spaghetti FAQ
Q. What wines pair well with spaghetti?
A. The wine pairing you choose will depend on the sauce and other ingredients.
Q. Are there other pasta days on the calendar?
A. Yes. Check out these days to get your pasta fix:
Tortellini Day
Lasagna Day
Pasta Month
Now this is a day I can get behind.
by having the pasta al dente whatever warm sauce it is placed in is further absorbed into the outer wall of the pasta — or so I was taught as a Mess Sgt.
My favorite dinner on my birthday in my youth was Spaghetti and Meatballs which my mother made very well. In recent years, trying to put back on weight, I have become a real pasta fan. I can make a lot of different pasta dishes although I don’t normally make fresh pasta itself.
I recommend that people look around for artichoke bottoms, which if canned tender are wonderful sliced up in pasta dishes.
I like to also make some pretty plain pastas. Try browning a bunch of diced up garlic in butter and olive oil, then adding that with a little lemon juice to cooked pasta. Then cover with fresh chopped basil and high quality parmesan cheese fairly dry and finely shredded
The only thing I can’t make like Jenni’s Restaurant in Columbus Park is Linguini Carbonara. I am going to have to take a whole weekend sometime and just make repeated batches until I get it just right — but I don’t have the patience right now..
A restaurant in CA used to have Linguine Caruso — wine and chicken livers. I loved that. It does sound weird, but it was delicious.
That sounds delicious. My favorite pasta dish is Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
When I fixed this, my little brother labeled it bait and fettuccine.
Old Italian Gardens in Kansas City used to have Spaghetti a la Caruso with chicken livers cooked in marsala wine then added to the red sauce. So I guess he was really known of it as that restaurant went way back to the 30s as I recall.
I boil some up and then mix it with a can of albacore tuna and some olive oil butter and grated Parmesan. Pepper or poppy seeds or anchovies
I boil some up and then mix it with a can of albacore tuna and some olive oil butter and grated Parmesan. Pepper or poppy seeds or anchovies
I was in mgmt of a low-grade Italian restaurant that was mostly pizza, and the spaghetti was pre-cooked, put into baggies for refrigeration storage, and dropped into boiling water for reheating before serving.
Well, we succumbed. We used our leftover smoked chicken and added it to our Carfagna’s marinara sauce, I sautéed zucchini, onion, and tomatoes as a side. Added lots and lots of finely grated Parmesan. So spaghetti night, with a twist!😁
Tomorrow it doesn’t matter what national day it is. I will be making creamy chicken with mushrooms, garlic, and wine sauce over noodles, with green beans almondine as a side. Only because I promised a friend who is looking for a nice homemade meal so I can help her out.. She had surgery before Christmas and needs a helping hand. What are friends for if not a nice meal? Hope she and her husband enjoy it!
“The secret to good red gravy”
A long ago girlfriend was taught by her 1st gen mother that good sauce covers up faults in the meal.
Reminds me of that scene in "National Lampoon's European Vacation" where they order "French" food.
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