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Baked Spaghetti
Cook 1 large package of spaghetti in salted water until tender. Drain and add 1 C of meat broth or a dissolved bullion cube, 1 chopped. green pepper, 1 chopped onion, lightly browned in butter, also butter in which onion is fried, and 1 can of tomato pulp, salt and pepper. Bake in moderate oven for one-half hour. Serve with grated cheese.
A plain baked pasta from a church supper collection, written for cooks who already knew the drill. Two things need pinning down: the package size and the fact that the spaghetti gets a second cooking in the oven.
- Undercook the pastaThe recipe says to boil until tender, but the spaghetti then spends half an hour in the oven absorbing broth and tomato. Boiling it a few minutes short will keep it from coming out soft and pasty.
- "1 large package"Package sizes of the period varied, and pasta was also sold loose; a pound is the sensible reading and matches the quantity of sauce here.
- Moderate oven350F. The dish is already cooked through, so the oven is only setting and browning it.
- Tomato pulpCanned tomato pulp was a thick, strained tomato, closest today to tomato puree or crushed tomatoes. The recipe does not give a can size; something in the 10- to 20-oz range suits the quantity of pasta.
- Butter and saltNo butter quantity is given; 2 to 3 tablespoons is enough to soften the onion and pepper and still leave some to pour over. Salt cautiously, since both the pasta water and the bouillon cube are already salty.
- Keep it coveredA cup of broth in an uncovered dish will bake away and leave the top layer dry and hard. Cover for the first 20 minutes, uncover for the last 10 if you want colour.
- The cheese"Serve with grated cheese" points to cheese passed at the table rather than a melted topping; the kind is not specified.
Church and charity cookbooks of the early twentieth century show spaghetti appearing in general American use, often filed under luncheon or supper dishes rather than main courses. Canned tomato pulp and the bouillon cube are the tells of the era; both were available manufactured shortcuts by the 1910s and 1920s, and both let a contributor produce a hot dish for a crowd without a stockpot or a garden. The dish is meatless apart from a cup of broth, which suited a cheap, easily stretched supper that could sit in the oven.