Skip to content

Spaghetti Alla Napolitana

A historical recipe from Practical Italian recipes for American kitchens, by Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti (1917).

A historical recipe

Practical Italian recipes for American kitchens: Sold to aid the families of Italian soldiers, by Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti (1917). Project Gutenberg eBook #43912.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Source and licence

From Practical Italian recipes for American kitchens, by Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti (1917). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #43912 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43912). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.

Italy. Associated with Italy by the book is about Italian cookery (Cooking, Italian); the recipe itself names no place (confidence 0.4). "Associated with" means only that the evidence named here links this recipe to that place. A recipe isn't labelled as representing an entire country because a source associates it with one, and regional origins are kept where the source gives them.

Create an image with FoodStudio Made by our AI generator from your own prepaid SecondMem credits. We keep no picture from the source.

Ingredients

Method

  1. 1/2 lb.
  2. round steak 1/4 lb.
  3. salt pork or bacon 1 small onion A clove of garlic 1 tablespoon butter or substitute A few dried mushrooms, if desired Several sprigs parsley Fresh or canned tomatoes Grind the salt pork and try it out in a saucepan.
  4. While it is frying put the onion through the grinder.
  5. As soon as the pork begins to brown add the onion, the parsley chopped, the garlic shredded fine, and the mushrooms which have been softened by soaking in warm water.
  6. When the vegetables are very brown (great care must be taken not to burn the onion, which scorches very easily) add the meat ground coarsely or cut up in little cubes.
  7. When the meat is a good brown color, add about one pint of tomatoes and simmer slowly until all has cooked down to a thick creamy sauce.
  8. It will probably take 3/4 hour.
  9. The sauce may be bound together with a little flour if it shows a tendency to separate.
  10. This sauce is used to dress all kinds of macaroni and spaghetti, also for boiled rice.
  11. Spaghetti should be left unbroken when it is cooked.
  12. If it is too long to fit in the kettle immerse one end in the boiling salted water and in a very few minutes the ends of the spaghetti under the water will become softened so that the rest can be pushed down into the kettle.
  13. Be careful not to overcook it and it will not be pasty, but firm and tender.
  14. Drain it carefully and put in a hot soup tureen.
  15. Sprinkle a handful of grated cheese over it and pour on the sauce.
  16. Lift with two forks until thoroughly mixed.