Study Options
481 How to Make Spaghetti
Akane shares her spaghetti recipe.
- Transcript
- Vocabulary
Akane
Print Now
Hello, and welcome to our show.
Today, we’ll be making one of my favourite recipes.
It’s called the egg spaghetti.
First, what you will need for this recipe is:
About a hundred grams of dried spaghetti,
Two table spoons of olive oil,
Fifty grams of minced meat,
About a half of a medium onion,
Half a cup of chopped mushrooms,
One cup of tomato sauce, or peeled crushed tomatoes
(I prefer peeled crushed tomatoes)
And lastly, you will need one egg.
First, let your water come to a boil, and boil your dried spaghetti.
While you are waiting for your spaghetti to boil, you can prepare your sauce.
Heat up the pan with the olive oil, and add the minced meat.
Brown the minced meat until it gets nice and brown.
Lower the heat to about medium heat, and then add your chopped onions.
It’s important to fry your onions in lower heat so that you can let it caramelize. It’ll take a while but it will be worth the effort, because all of the sugars will come out of the onion and bring a nice sweat taste to your sauce.
Then, add your mushrooms (your chopped mushrooms), and keep stirring it around until it gets nice and tender.
And then lastly, you can add your tomato sauce, or peeled crushed tomatoes.
And let it simmer for a bit until it gets nice and warm.
Your spaghetti should be ready by now. So you can drain the water out and add a bit of olive oil to your spaghetti, so that it won’t stick. Put your spaghetti on a plate, and then pour some of your sauce on top.
Now, you can fry your egg on a pan sunny-side-up. I like to leave the yolk nice and soft. And then put the fried egg on top of your spaghetti. Now, when you eat your spaghetti, I like to pierce the egg with a fork so that all the yolk drizzles out and becomes a part of the sauce. The egg is quite alkaline, so it brings a nice mild taste that counteracts with the acidic tomato.
And enjoy!
minced meat
You'll need fifty grams of minced meat and one egg.
When something is 'minced,' it is chopped into very small pieces. Notice the following:
- You can make this pasta with minced meat or cheese.
- Too much minced meat is unhealthy for you.
brown
Brown the minced meat until it gets nice and brown.
Here 'brown' is used as a verb, meaning to cook the meat until it turns brown, showing that it is cooked. Notice the following:
- You need to brown the hamburger before you do anything
else.
- It will take a few minutes for the steak pieces to
brown.
caramelize
It's important to fry your onions in low heat so that you
can let it caramelize.
When something that you cook 'caramelizes' it means that you cover it with melted sugar. In this case, it means more to cook them until they become clear. Notice the following:
- The caramelized onions on the top of this bread really
give it a lot of flavor.
- The best part of this salad is the caramelized walnuts
that go on the top.
simmer
Let it simmer for a bit until it gets nice and warm.
When something 'simmers,' it cooks at a lower temperature than boiling, but there are still a few bubbles. You usually simmer sauces on low heat. Notice the following:
- How long do you have to simmer the sauce?
- This soup has been simmering most of the day.
drizzles out
I like to pierce the egg with a fork so that all the yolk
drizzles out and becomes part of the sauce.
When a liquid 'drizzles out' of something it comes out slowly, rather than all at the same time. Notice the following:
- The oil just drizzles out of this bottle.
- You have to use something that lets the frosting just
drizzle out.
alkaline/acidic
The egg is quite alkaline, so its taste counteracts with
the acidic tomato.
An 'alkaline' material contains alkali, which are used in chemistry to neutralize acids. Something 'acidic' has acids, so it has a sharp and strong flavor. Notice the following:
- Some people don't like grapefruit because it is so
acidic.
- If I have coffee and orange juice in the morning I get
an upset stomach because they are both very acidic.
