As a kid, I thought there was only one kind of spaghetti. The kind all kids have during their birthday. The kind that was perfected by Jollibee. It was red. It had cheese. It had ground beef and slices of hotdogs.
Growing up, I was horrified and then fascinated by the different kinds of pasta sauces that were available. There was this tasteless white sauce with green peas and half-cooked pig fat. Then, there was this oily paste made up of chopped up leaves. Of course, now I have learned to appreciate carbonara and the different kinds of pesto. But, no other kind of spaghetti can comfort me as much as what my sisters fondly call Filipino Spaghetti. Here are 8 no-longer-secret ingredients that I use to spice up my favorite birthday dish of all time.
Yes, everyone uses tomato sauce. I know very few people who are patient enough to prepare their spaghetti with honest to goodness fresh and ripe tomatoes. It won’t take 2 hours. And, it will give your sauce a buoyant texture that you cannot get from processed tomato sauces or pastes.
Non-dairy creamerThis is my usual answer when people ask me what my secret ingredient is. It will give your sauce a different level of creaminess. This is a good substitute for the lactose intolerant who react violently to cheese.
Carrots