The Vintage Spaghetti Dish You Rarely See On Dinner Tables Today

Pasta comes in all forms, whether it's decadent caramelles or your grandma's made-from-scratch lasagna. Some dishes come and go, however, including the many vintage pasta dishes that you don't see often these days (don't worry, lasagna will never go out of style). One dish that has seemingly disappeared from today's dinner tables is spaghetti Aquitania. There's a good chance you haven't tried it or even heard of it until reading this.   

Think of spaghetti Aquitania as a casserole of sorts. It was quite popular in the 1940s after appearing in the cookbook "Caruso Recipes for Spaghetti, Elbow Macaroni, and Egg Noodles." It's an Italian-American recipe that you'd probably never find in Italy, but certainly could still make today, no matter where you reside. Perhaps what makes spaghetti Aquitania so unique is the seemingly random ingredients that go into the dish. Cottage cheese is all the rage these days, but the ingredient made its way into pasta dishes back in the 1940s, too. The recipe also calls for parsley, mint, or green bell pepper, a curious directive that suggests its inclusion is intended as a pop of color instead of for flavor. Other ingredients include breadcrumbs, carrots, onion, pimento peppers, and crushed nuts. Sounds a little strange, right? 

To get started, you'll want to boil your spaghetti to al dente, because it will continue to cook in the oven. Avoid making one of the biggest mistakes everyone makes when cooking spaghetti, and taste test the noodles as they boil so that the desired texture is achieved. Afterwards, you'll prepare the vegetables by dicing carrots, chopping pimento peppers, mincing parsley, or green bell pepper (or even use both!), and grating some onion. The next step is as easy as combining all the ingredients in a bowl with the spaghetti, including eggs, buttered breadcrumbs, cottage cheese, cream, salt, and your veggies, mixing well. Then, transfer the mixture into a greased loaf pan for baking (yes, the same kind you'd use to bake treats like banana bread).

This recipe is unique, and there are certainly ways to elevate or modernize the dish. Lean into Italian-American cuisine and use ricotta and parmesan instead of the cottage cheese in the vintage recipe. Ground chicken, beef, turkey, or crumbled Italian sausage is a great way to add meaty flavor to spaghetti Aquitania. Other classic baked spaghetti dishes use marinara sauce, garlic, red pepper flakes for heat, or mozzarella, so feel free to incorporate any of those elements as you put your own 21st-century spin on old-fashioned spaghetti Aquitania.