I’d love to tell you exactly where this recipe came from originally, but the answer is, “my mother”. At least that’s the answer I received when I asked my mom where she got it. That should be sufficient, really, but given the singularity of the ingredient list, I was expecting something a bit more exotic. I’m pretty sure my grandmother didn’t just think it up.
You’ll notice the seasonings aren’t quite what you expect to find in an Italian red sauce recipe. Chili powder? Ground cloves? Curry powder? What’s up with that? For a long time I wondered what sort of ethnic variation this recipe might be. Then a couple of years ago I was thumbing through an old cookbook put out by an Episcopal Women’s Auxiliary in the 1950’s or so–from Montgomery, I think. I found a recipe named Creole Spaghetti that was somewhat similar. It had chili powder, curry powder, cloves, and maybe something like allspice. It also had green bell pepper which makes sense given the Creole name, and I don’t remember what else. Anyway, I don’t know why the possibility of a Creole origin didn’t occur to me before, but it’s no wonder we like it. It certainly has some Caribbean-on-Italian influence going on.
If you Google “Creole spaghetti” today, you’ll get a bunch of recipes that are essentially typical Italian spaghetti, but include prepared Creole seasoning and bell peppers. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but they aren’t the same thing as this dish. This spaghetti is very flavorful, but it’s not spicy hot. Instead, it’s fragrant and complex, and those disparate-sounding flavors meld perfectly.
This sauce is Bolognese-style, meaning it’s a beef and tomato based sauce. I have tried to make the sauce without the ground beef so I could serve it over meatballs instead, but it wasn’t especially good. (Now when we have a hankering for spaghetti and meatballs, I make a more traditional Italian red sauce.) Also, this spaghetti definitely tastes best when the noodles and sauce are combined and heated together at the end of cooking, rather than kept separate until serving. And it certainly makes a lovely bed for a blanket of parmesan cheese.
Creole Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 lb. ground beef *See Note below
- 1 4 oz. can tomato paste
- 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/2 t, pepper
- 2 T. chili powder
- 1 t. Italian seasoning
- 1 t. dried oregano
- 1/4 t. ground cloves
- 1/2 t. curry powder
- 1/4 t. dried marjoram
- 1 lb. vermicelli or thin spaghetti, cooked al dente
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven or deep skillet, sauté onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic and ground beef and cook until beef is no longer pink.
- Add the rest of the ingredients except noodles. Stir well, turn the heat to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the cooked noodles to the pot and toss until thoroughly combined and evenly hot.
- Serve with parmesan cheese and garlic bread.
Hello-what size cans on the tomato paste and tomato sauce? Assuming the small skinny can (8 oz?) on tomato paste and 8 oz on sauce but just checking. Thank you!
Yes! The small cans. 6 oz. for the paste–that’s the skinny one–and 8 oz. for sauce. That’s what I think of as the regular small one. I’ll fix that on the recipe and update it. Thanks!
My grandmother made something similar. She used her own canned tomatoes, curry powder and chili powder, but I don’t think she used the herbs. She put clove in a lot of things, so it might have had some of that. She also used garlic powder most likely instead of whole fresh cloves.
See? We’re not alone!