When I pinned
a recipe for homemade Spaghetti-O's the other day I couldn't wait to test it. My kids are big fans of the Campbell's version, and I thought it would be fun to see how the recipe compared. I don't think there's probably a huge difference in the nutritional value between the canned and homemade versions since I used Hunt's tomato sauce and regular boxed pasta. But, if you were to use organic or homemade tomato sauce and whole wheat pasta then the "healthiness" of the homemade version would be significantly better.
I did make some minor changes to the original recipe by Sarah at
So says Sarah. The ingredients she used are below and the changes I made are in blue...
14 ounces Anillos (small ringed pasta)
16 ounces Ditalini
1 28-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 15-ounce cans of tomato sauce
1 garlic clove minced
3 garlic cloves minced
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
NO sugar
3 cups water
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup butter
1/4-cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 handfulls of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
I could NOT find Anillos pasta in any of the FOUR stores I looked in. So, I decided to use one box of Barilla's Ditalini pasta instead and it worked perfectly.
Since I increased the amount of pasta, I figured I should also increase the amount of sauce. Plus, I didn't have a 28 ounce can in my pantry, but I did have two 15 ounce cans! Also, I couldn't image that one lonely clove of garlic was going to really do anything for this amount of pasta (and we LOVE garlic) so I upped that to three cloves. I had the same thought process about the butter. What good was one little tablespoon of butter going to be for a whole pound of pasta?! So, that got upped to a 1/4 cup.
I followed Sarah's instructions almost exactly except for one small change (in blue)...
(condensed version of Sarah's instructions)
- Pre-boil the pasta in a large pot of boiling water
for about 10-minutes.
- While the pasta is boiling, add the tomato sauce, garlic, pepper, and salt in a blender and
give a good whirl so that it is nice and smooth.
- Add the tomato mixture to 3 cups of water in another sauce pan and stir. Turn the heat to medium and let the sauce warm up.
- After 10-minutes, drain the pasta and return it to its original pot.
Add the butter and stir to coat using its residual heat.
- Add the tomato sauce to the pasta, turn up the heat to medium, and let simmer
for about
20-minutes 10 minutes, making sure to stir every few minutes. (I only had to let it simmer for about 10 minutes before it got to the consistency I wanted)
- Turn off the heat, add the milk and cheese, and stir.
The Verdict: This was a HUGE hit with the kids, and they all asked for seconds! I loved it as well, which was a pleasant surprise as I am not a fan of Campbell's Spaghetti O's. This does make a HUGE bowl of O's, but for me, a mother of FOUR, that's perfect! My oldest, who is allowed to use the microwave at her school, took this for lunch as well. I will definitely be adding this to my favorite recipes binder.
BTW.... the picture at the top of this post is of my O's after a day in the fridge. They looked much "saucier" the night I made them, but they had of course soaked up more of the sauce while sitting in the fridge. Thankfully, that didn't affect the yumminess one bit!
