{"id":919,"date":"2015-01-11T22:41:36","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T04:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=919"},"modified":"2015-11-06T14:06:41","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T20:06:41","slug":"pre-adolesce-is-more-spaghetti-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=919","title":{"rendered":"&quot;Pre-Adolesce&quot; is More: Spaghetti Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D919&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_920\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Spaghetti-Funnel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-920\" class=\"wp-image-920\" title=\"Spaghetti Funnel\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Spaghetti-Funnel-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Spaghetti-Funnel-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Spaghetti-Funnel-100x75.jpg 100w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Spaghetti-Funnel-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Spaghetti-Funnel.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-920\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oodles o&#8217; Noodles<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As my wife was reading through past editions of this blog, the ones she hadn\u2019t quite gotten around to reading, (<em>You too? <\/em> <em>Not to worry. \u00a0I don&#8217;t read them all either.<\/em>) she stumbled on a recurring theme: My children are not all that fond of my creations.<\/p>\n<p>I am sure that if my eight- and ten-year-old\u00a0actually read the blog instead of just sampling a spoonful here and there, they would feel differently, but they don&#8217;t. \u00a0Does that mean I\u2019m going to elevate the level of discourse to please them?<\/p>\n<p>It does not.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m going to do what anyone who is not a media darling or a principled politician would do\u2014pander to their basest instincts.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, their taste buds.<\/p>\n<p>One of my children\u2019s favorite meals, after tacos and pizza and chili , is spaghetti.\u00a0 It was that way in my and my wife\u2019s houses growing up too, a trend that undoubtedly goes all the way back to the old countries, i.e. Germany, England and Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>That is where this week\u2019s soup recipe came from, that and the fact that I\u2019ve already made taco soup and chili (twice) and I wouldn\u2019t begin to know how to make pizza soup (yet).<\/p>\n<p>So spaghetti it is.<\/p>\n<p>The roots of my family\u2019s spaghetti began in my mother\u2019s kitchen, back before her conversion to vegetarianism.\u00a0 In those days my mother used to make a spaghetti with meat sauce using tomatoes, garlic, ground beef and, in all likelihood, a few other things.\u00a0 It was delicious.\u00a0 All of us loved it.\u00a0 That is not, however, the recipe we use in our house today.\u00a0 Just as my mom improves each of my soups as she translates them into &#8220;Vegetarian&#8221; out in California, so I have developed an improved spaghetti with meat sauce.<\/p>\n<p>At least I think so.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong><em> I never actually bothered to ask my mom how she made her recipe.\u00a0 So my conception of its overall quality and the ingredients she used are really just a matter of childish conjecture and a fond memory.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What I do know is that <em>my <\/em>spaghetti sauce is composed of Italian sausage, red wine, garlic, basil, oregano and fennel seeds and it is very, very good.<\/p>\n<p>To convert the sauce into a soup, I had to add a few cups of stock to the mix and break all the spaghetti noodles into small pieces so my <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">guinea pigs<\/span> children could eat them with a spoon.<\/p>\n<p>The result is comfort food pure and simple.<\/p>\n<p>And what did I get for my efforts at indulging my children\u2019s \u201cdeveloping\u201d palates?<\/p>\n<p>Well, my wife loved the soup, as did I.\u00a0 And happily my children enjoyed it very much as well, despite the lack of bells and whistles (i.e. garlic bread).\u00a0 My eldest daughter plowed through her bowl in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n<p>And when she was done she said:\u00a0 \u201cIt was great\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;but&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not really soup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(sigh)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spaghetti Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 6-8)<br \/>\n1\u00a0 T canola oil<br \/>\n8 \u00a0oz. onions, chopped<br \/>\n1\u00a0 lb Italian sausage, skinned<br \/>\n4 \u00a0cloves garlic, minced<br \/>\n2\u00a0 28 oz cans diced tomatoes<br \/>\n1\u00a0 6 oz can tomato paste<br \/>\n\u00bc\u00a0 cup dried basil<br \/>\n\u00bc\u00a0 cup dried oregano<br \/>\n1\u00a0 T fennel seeds<br \/>\n8\u00a0 cups stock<br \/>\n1\u00a0 cup dry red wine<br \/>\nsalt &amp; pepper to taste<br \/>\n8 oz. spaghetti, in bite-sized pieces<br \/>\ngrated parmesan (optional)<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Heat the oil over low heat in a 3 quart soup pot, then add the onions and sausage.\u00a0 Mash the sausage with a potato masher to break the large chunks into smaller pieces and stir the mixture until it begins to brown.<\/li>\n<li>Next add the garlic and saut\u00e9 for a few minutes more (being careful not to burn it. You know I hate burnt garlic.) Then add the tomatoes, paste, herbs, stock wine, and seasonings, bring the soup to a boil and reduce to a simmer for about an hour.<\/li>\n<li>Then add the broken spaghetti and continue to simmer the soup until the noodles are done.<\/li>\n<li>Garnish each bowl with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese over the top.\u00a0 Garlic bread is optional, but it\u2019s a terrific pairing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit: <\/em>\u201cFunnel Full of Noodles,\u201d photographed by the author.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spaghetti is a great meal for a cool winter\u2019s evening.\u00a0 Like the ones we\u2019re having right now in the Midwest and the ones we had in California as well.\u00a0 Why should a spaghetti soup be any different?\u00a0 Let me know in a comment. <\/strong><strong>I\u2019ll be reading <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As my wife was reading through past editions of this blog, the ones she hadn\u2019t quite gotten around to reading, (You too? Not to worry. \u00a0I don&#8217;t read them all either.) she stumbled on a recurring theme: My children are not all that fond of my creations. I am sure that if my eight- and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,22,10,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-dairy-products","category-noodles","category-pork","category-tomatoes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2217,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/2217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}