The Canned Childhood Favorite That Quietly Left US Grocery Stores

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Nothing says childhood like pasta in a can. It was perfect for busy families and latchkey kids; all you had to do was open the can, pour the contents in a pot, and heat it up. Arguably, the most superior kind of ready-to-eat-pasta was letter-shaped, as in Alphabetti Spaghetti from Heinz, a product that delighted kids for 60 years until it was discontinued in 1990. The product consisted of tiny pasta pieces swimming in a pool of tomato sauce. It actually encouraged kids to play with their food. Some spelled out their names, others discreetly spooned up curse words while giggling under their breath, but this was lunchtime entertainment before smartphones came into play.

Not much can be found about the pasta's origin, as far as its exact release date and early marketing, but Europeans were actually shaping pasta into letter shapes before the trend caught on in the United States. After being MIA for 15 years, Heinz brought the pasta back under the name Alphabetti (it also goes by Alphaghetti) in 2005, but it appears it's currently only sold in person in the United Kingdom (where it's often poured over toast), Canada, and in Australia where it goes by Alphaghetti. Fortunately, Americans with a hankering for the nostalgic product can order cans of Alphabetti on Amazon.

You've got to hand it to Heinz, as Alphabetti truly contains every letter of the alphabet. Fans have gone through cans of the pasta and separated each letter, and all have been represented. If you can't get your hands on cans of Alphabetti, it's very easy to find alternatives. Campbell's makes a condensed tomato soup that includes alphabet-shaped pasta pieces as well as a version of SpaghettiOs with letters. (However, the original SpaghettiOs is one brand of canned pasta we think you should buy.) Chef Boyardee makes a similar product that includes meatballs, and there are a few ways to upgrade the dish to make it even tastier.

You can also make a homemade version of Alphabetti. All you need is a package of dried letter pasta to drop in a good tomato sauce. But you don't need to stop at a simple tomato pasta entrée; it's easy to jazz up a recipe like this with added meat or meatballs, fresh herbs, plenty of cheese, and vegetables. Even Heinz has a recipe for Alphabetti shakshuka that's made with onions, spinach, tomato sauce, a can of Alphabetti, feta cheese and eggs, which are cooked in the sauce. It's almost as easy to make as 3-ingredient shakshuka. After all, you're never too old to play with your food.