Grandma Marie's White Spaghetti
Chucks Grandma Marie was my best friend on many levels, when Chuck and I moved into our first house together in Norwalk, California she lived four houses down from our house that was in 1973 I was 20 years old and just learning to cook. I would go down to her house to visit her or to eat dinners with all the family on weekends. There was always something cooking on her stove or in it. It could be pizzas in cookie sheets with just some of her sauce and a little bit of cheese on each waiting to go into her oven usually it was 8 or 10 of them. Or near Christmas it was cookies galore I mean four different kinds in boxes to be given away when someone came over for a visit or she went somewhere. She would stack the boxes of cookies in her extra bedroom all in some pretty boxes of some sort. Other times she would be making dozens of bean and cheese burritos to put in her freezer to take out when ever she wanted one or someone like me who loved them. On my favorite days of visiting her we would just sit and talk and watch her TV while eating some of her popcorn that she had made earlier and she put the popcorn in large tins, it was always good. Although I did love when she would make big pots of hard cooked and dried garbanzo beans salted and crunchy and supper hard and delicious. I could go on and on and talk of all the wonderful things she would make but my point is, I was mesmerized by her cooking. I never saw a recipe although I have one of her pizza dough recipes that she wrote down in 1953 and her niece gave it to me. She loved food and loved to cook it and talk about it and I was listening without even realizing it at the time. I to love to cook. Oh the white spaghetti, well that was just something she would throw together when she was not in the mood to make cooking an all day adventure. I loved it at first sight, olive oil hot chiles lots of garlic and pasta, whats not to like from someone who never cared for meat. It was heaven! So when she would make her " poor man meatballs " as she would call them, I always wanted to be the poor man. Eggplant and herbs and her sauce, she was becoming my best friend. I miss her and loved her dearly.
Ok she didn't put any green on top that's me.
1- 1/2 bag of spaghetti
About 1/4 cup of Olive Oil or less or more
2 Tablespoons of butter
Chili flakes how much do you like?
5 -6 chopped up garlic clove
Salt to taste
Boil your water and cook spaghetti to your taste
Put the Olive Oil and butter and salt in a large saute pan and add the chilies and garlic cook and stir until just starting to brown. I like my garlic just a little brown, not burnt.
Take it off the heat and when spaghetti is ready add it to the Oil in the pan and add a few spoonfuls of the water too.
Stir it all up and add basil if you like and enjoy a simple slice of heaven