Preserved Spaghetti!
Ok, this may sound strange to some, but I promise that this will create lifelong memories both in the kitchen and on a cold winter’s night when you pop open a jar of spaghetti.
pssst. It kind of tastes like the canned stuff you’ve seen with alphabet shaped noodles 😉. Only ours is good and not full of ingredients that you can’t pronounce!
Growing up in Canada, both my brother and I played hockey. I’m sure that between school, work and our activities, our parents were stretched thin! My mum grew up on this canned spaghetti and we would always enjoy it over buttered toast after a late night game or practice. Healthy, delicious and convenient comfort food! Tell me what’s better than that?!
So, here we are, our daughter is about to enter kindergarten, our son will be starting preschool and I’m preparing for what I imagine will be our busiest year yet as parents. So, what do I do? I go into overdrive preparing as much as I can (pun intended) now to help me throughout the school year.
I’ve dehydrated blueberries in lieu of raisins, dehydrated strawberries for school lunches and will soon be making fruit leather for school lunches!
With tomatoes finally in season though and my dad visiting, we purchased two flats of slightly bruised tomatoes and got to work!
I tried looking up a recipe online for the recipe as we were at the fruit stand, and I found one, also from New Zealand like my mum and her recipe. My dad said it wasn’t the same and so we waited for her to send it through and got to work!
Here is her recipe (see below for notes and additional instructions!)
I highly suggest that before any canning you do some basic research on how to preserve. If the jars don’t seal properly, they can grow mould and of course this can be life threatening. Once you have the basic understanding though, it’s not scary at all!
Basic tools that you will need:
- Two large pots (one for water bath) (one for your spaghetti!)
- Tongs
- A Funnel
- Jars and lids
- A wooden or plastic device to remove air bubbles. You don’t want to use metal here
Instructions:
1) Remove stem from tomatoes, cut into quarters. Peel and quarter onions. Add sugar, onions, tomatoes, salt and pepper to the pot and cook until you reach a pulpy consistency.
Once the mixture is pulpy, cook your spaghetti. You’ll want to make sure to use 2lbs of spaghetti noodles since the box mentioned in my mum’s recipe is from New Zealand and sizing differs.
Strain the mixture, continue to strain even after you’ve brought the liquid back to the pot. A lot of juice will continue to come out. This will be the difference between getting 9 quarts and maybe 2 quarts!!
In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add half of it to the liquid and then add your flour to the melted butter pan. Mix with a whisk until a paste appears, add a cup of liquid to the pan and mix for 1 minute. Add mix to the liquid and allow to thicken.
Once desired consistency is met, add the cooked spaghetti noodles to the pot and stir.
Transfer noodles and sauce to HOT & CLEAN JARS.
Place lids screw caps on the jars and transfer to hot water bath for 15 minutes. The spaghetti (if sealed) will last for 12+ months in the cupboard!
Remove from water bath, cool on the counter and do not move for 24 hours. Make sure that the lid has sealed. You can tell, as the top is concave and doesn’t give when you press on it!
(A hot water bath is when you submerge your hot jars in boiling water for the specified time).
Our family rule is that you cannot open any preserves until after the first frost!
Enjoy
xoxo Carley