Bacon and Canned Spaghetti

A two-line assembly from a menu book built around canned goods, written when a cook was expected to know how bacon behaves and needed only the idea. A few things are left unsaid.

• What "canned spaghetti" meantIn the era of canned-goods cookery this meant soft spaghetti packed in a mild tomato-and-cheese sauce, sold under brands such as Franco-American. The nearest current equivalent is canned spaghetti in tomato sauce; a jar of pasta sauce over freshly boiled spaghetti is a better dish but a different one.
• Heating the spaghettiEmpty the can into a saucepan and warm it over low heat, stirring now and then, until it steams — five minutes or so. Canned pasta is already fully cooked, and long heating turns the strands to paste.
• Bacon under the broilerLay the slices on a rack in a foil-lined pan about 4 inches from the element and turn once; three to four minutes a side for standard-cut bacon. Cure and thickness varied a good deal, so watch it rather than trusting a clock.
• Drain before platingThe point of the arrangement is a crisp border against a soft centre. Blot the bacon on paper before you ring it around the spaghetti, or the rendered fat pools into the sauce and the contrast is lost.
• QuantityThe recipe gives no amounts. A single can of spaghetti with three or four rashers makes a light supper for two; scale both elements up together for more.
• Where it sits in a mealIt wants something sharp and cold beside it — sliced tomatoes, pickled beets, or a plain green salad — since both elements are salty and soft.