Raw Spaghetti Revenge

When I say, raw spaghetti revenge, you might get a mental image of something like this picture, or I could be talking about starting with the raw, naked, ingredients and building the revenge from there. A friend once commented on how I am a palm full, pinch of this, and a dash of that, type of cook. This got me to thinking that in the 30 some odd years of cooking for myself, and others, I have never made my spaghetti dinner the same way twice because I do not follow a recipe or measure anything. Still my spaghetti is always good even if it does come out differently every time. I have always thought of my spaghetti dinners as starting out as a kind of a raw concept meal that I build on from there depending on the mood I am in or the likes and dislikes of my company. Those who have consumed one of my always different spaghetti dinners always seem to like my cooking. Those who didn’t; I can always whip up some of my famous raw spaghetti revenge which I sometime serve cold but a meal that always warms my heart.   

Back in the day, before I honed my cooking skills my version of a raw spaghetti dinner was Franco American Spaghetti in a can. I loved that stuff. I would eat it cold right out of the can not bothering to heat it. The sauce was almost like tomato soup so whenever I could I would always have Ritz Crackers with my canned spaghetti, Yum, yum.

If I really stop and think about it I probably owe my culinary skills to my, can’t cook anything, mother. She would throw a glob of hamburger in a skillet or pot and then add in anything that we had left on the pantry shelf. Back then my Dad was in the Army and only got paid once a month. I will give Mom kudos for inventiveness during the last 10 days of the month. The good news was that she did stir her spaghetti sauce pot every now and then so it did not burn all that often. Then she would pour, whatever you want to call it sauce, over boiled, lumpy spaghetti because she rarely stirred the boiling spaghetti pot. Is it any wonder I loved Franco American Spaghetti in a can?

However the idea of adding what’s on hand instead of following a recipe that requires you to go to the store and purchase several items you don’t really need or want, appealed to me. Another palm full, pinch and dash cook was born. During my growth as a cook I learned that different people like their spaghetti dinners served different ways. Thick sauce, thin sauce, lots of meat, no meat, sauce with or without mushrooms or onions, no sauce at all, and of course they want their spaghetti over cooked or under cooked. Trying to please everybody with only one type of spaghetti dish is a raw deal for any cook. Someday I am going to find the real meaning of the word “al dente”.   

So here is my revenge for all of you who like to take spaghetti, then spaghetti sauce, and then combine them into a spaghetti dinner. I will make my spaghetti my way but never the same way. However I will not make it your way using a recipe. I CAN always whip up a quick spaghetti dinner for you picky eaters. Why am I such an obliging cook? Because raw spaghetti revenge is a dish best served warm.