Comfort food to the max. You know, homemade SpaghettiOs! Or spaghetti hoops or spaghetti loops as they’re known in various parts of the world. If you aren’t familiar with them, they’re round pasta in a tomato-based soup that typically comes in a campbell’s can. It doesn’t seem the most glorious of meals, if you haven’t grown up with them, I know. The soup is really a cross between soup and sauce, and it’s just meant to be a quick meal. And it’s a step up from the basic ramen packets; am I right? Sometimes you just need a little comfort food to get you through the week. Growing up, it was rare that we allowed having anything like canned SpaghettiOs. But I know it’s a childhood favorite for a lot of people. With high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, and all sorts of other mystery ingredients I didn’t know they weren’t great for you at that age. And at the time, I just wanted to be like all the other kids in school that ate normal American food. Years later did I realize that I was the one that was lucky to have a mom that made us delicious from-scratch meals. And if you think I’m kidding, I am not; my mom made us homemade SpaghettiOs! And though I may not have SpaghettiOs very often at this age, it’s nostalgic food that works well as a side dish with any protein, like, grilled chicken or even better if you toss in cooked mini meatballs into the soup. It doubles up as a meal for kids. It’s also perfect for making if you’re looking to turn humble pantry staples into a meal when the fridge is bare.
Ingredients for homemade SpaghettiOs recipe:
Olive oil: we’ll use the olive oil and infuse garlic into it.Seasonings: you’ll need some minced garlic, red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp onion powder, and black pepper. The red pepper flakes are optional; you can certainly leave them out if you’re cooking for little ones. Towards the end, we’ll also add a pinch of sugar to help round out the flavors. If you want less of that garlic flavor, feel free to swap minced garlic for garlic powder.Tomato paste: tomato paste packs the punch of tomato flavor to the soup/sauce base. You don’t want to use tomato puree, for this recipe as it’s just not as concentrated as the paste.Apple cider vinegar: adds just a touch of tartness to the baseChicken bouillon cubes: I like to use chicken bouillon cubes instead of chicken stock for this recipe as I find they pack a more flavorful punch.Small shaped pasta: I like to use anellini pasta for this recipe, but ditalini would work well and is more easily available.Grated pecorino cheese: freshly grated pecorino or parmesan cheese is added at the end to help flavor and thicken the soup base a little bit. Or you can stir in grated cheddar cheese into your bowl. I can’t imagine how that wouldn’t be delicious!
How to make SpaghettiOs from scratch:
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