Pinoy Spaghetti

Those who haven’t tasted the Pinoy Spaghetti I must tell you that it may look similar to the Italian counterpart but there is a big difference, Pinoy spaghetti is sweet and extender ingredients are used like ham and hotdogs. These additional ingredients are not included for its flavour but more as an extender, since Philippines is a country that is not blessed with wealth we got used to extending a lot of dishes so it can feed more people while keeping in a tight budget, pure beef and pork mince are expensive compared to processed ham and hotdogs, we even thicken the sauce by adding more water and flour.

Pinoy Spaghetti

I guess you will be surprised if I told you that Spaghetti is a popular and favourite dish in Philippines. In most of the occasions like parties and gathering spaghetti will be the one of the main stays, even McDonald’s and other popular fast food chains have spaghetti on their menu. Now for those who haven’t tasted the Filipino spaghetti I must tell you that it may look similar to the Italian counterpart but there is a big difference, Pinoy spaghetti is sweet and extender ingredients are used like ham and hotdogs. These additional ingredients are not included for its flavour but more as an extender, since Philippines is a country that is not blessed with wealth we got used to extending a lot of dishes so it can feed more people while keeping in a tight budget, pure beef and pork mince are expensive compared to processed ham and hotdogs, we even thicken the sauce by adding more water and flour. Sometimes those extenders is what defines Filipino dishes though the primary reason is extending, subtly it gives that unique taste that is why when Filipinos cook this overseas the taste would be different as we tend to use better ingredients and realize that the simple version tasted better.

Now cooking it here in New Zealand is a bit of a challenge specially achieving the original sweet style flavour as we don’t have the same catsup (the commonly used one is Banana Catsup) and spaghetti sauce, that’s why here I use tomato based catsup with a combination of tomato paste. I hope you try this one out and let me know your thoughts on it.

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Pinoy Spaghetti 2

Pinoy Spaghetti

  • Author: Raymund
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: Filipino

Description

Those who haven’t tasted the Pinoy Spaghetti I must tell you that it may look similar to the Italian counterpart but there is a big difference, Pinoy spaghetti is sweet and extender ingredients are used like ham and hotdogs. These additional ingredients are not included for its flavour but more as an extender, since Philippines is a country that is not blessed with wealth we got used to extending a lot of dishes so it can feed more people while keeping in a tight budget, pure beef and pork mince are expensive compared to processed ham and hotdogs, we even thicken the sauce by adding more water and flour.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 kg spaghetti noodles
  • 500 g minced beef
  • 500 g minced pork
  • 200 g hotdogs or frankfurters, sliced
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 large bottle sweet style tomato ketchup or banana ketchup
  • 400 g tomato puree/tomato sauce
  • 2 cups beef stock
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp rubbed sweet basil
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 big white onion, finely chopped
  • Quickmelt cheese or Colby, grated
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • sugar
  • salt
  • oil

Instructions

  1. Cook the spaghetti noodles according to packet instructions.
  2. In heavy pan add oil then sauté garlic and onions.
  3. Add the beef and pork. Cook until the meat turns light brown.
  4. Dissolve flour in beef stock.
  5. Add the tomato ketchup, tomato puree, hotdogs, tomato paste, basil and dissolved flour mixture. Stir then simmer for 20 minutes, add more water if needed.
  6. Season with pepper, salt and sugar (Philippine style spaghetti is sweet so we add more of this). Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
  7. Plate the noodles and top it with the sauce. Top it with grated cheese.

 

Pinoy Spaghetti Wide

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33 Responses

  1. peachkins says:

    Oh, Merry Christmas to you and your family, Raymund!

  2. Spaghetti is also becoming very popular at Malaysia, esp during the younger generation and my daughter can eat it almost everyday but for me, its the rice.

    Will ask her to try this recipe for herself and I am sure she will enjoy it very much.

  3. This sure does look good! Like Spaghetti Bolognese. Yummy!

  4. Jay says:

    omy gooooodness….sooooooooooper tempting..:)

    Tasty Appetite

  5. Kristy says:

    And people used to laugh at me for putting ketchup on everything! This looks like a fun twist on spaghetti. And I can’t believe spaghetti is on a McD’s menu. Wow!

  6. Wow, that is sweet! Spaghetti being popular worldwide doesn’t surprise me, the stuff’s great!

  7. Felicia says:

    This sounds like good family comfort food! The sweet vibe to it reminds me a bit of Japanese-style spaghetti, which also uses ketchup — but not the banana kind. I’ll have to try this version!

  8. I’ve heard of McDonald’s carrying regional favorites, but had no idea spaghetti was one of them. wow!

  9. I just has Spaghetti tonight.. but I didn’t see this recipe until now. I have to try out your recipe when I make it again 🙂

  10. I didn’t realize that there were sweet-style spaghetti recipes elsewhere. Cincinnati chili is another, and one I only came to know when visiting there in recent years. It’s “chili”, yes, but it happens to be traditional in Cincy to serve it like a Bolognese sauce over spaghetti. (I like Skyline’s best.)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_chili

  11. samology says:

    I love Pinoy Spaghetti! Sometimes I add in some longanisa into mine… Not sure if that’s the “right” way to cook it though… But thanks for this great recipe! I’ve never actually made Pinoy Spaghetti from scratch before!

  12. I have never added sausages to a mince meat sauce before – great flavour addition.
    🙂 Mandy

  13. yeah, filipinos know how to extend a food alright to keep things within the budget..

  14. foodjaunts says:

    I love Filipino spaghetti! Whenever I make it here (in the US) I make a special trip up to the giant International grocery store specifically to get the bright red Filipino hot dogs and banana ketchup 🙂

  15. We had this when we were in the Philippines a few years ago. My siblings are Filipino… I should make this for them. They’d love it!

  16. may says:

    Omg this is the way my nanny used to cook for me when I was young!! (she was from the philippines)

    now i cook something similar to this, except that i used stock cubes (due to time constraints) .

  17. Sweet style spaghetti is kinda made the mark of a Filipino spaghetti and pretty much a lot of kids love it and in most parties and gatherings it is also served. If people can’t find a banana ketchup, there is always Del Monte Sweet Style Spaghetti sauce. I don’t know if it’s available there though.

  18. Spaghetti is a great way to feed a lotos people on a budget.

    I love seeing iconic dishes reproduced in various different cuisines to their tastes and local ingredients.

    We have variations of spaghetti in Hong Kong too. Spaghetti House is avery popular chain and we visited there a few times when we go to Hong Kong. I found Hong Kong versions of spagetti are quite sweet also, but mild (not very salted) and the pasta is always overcooked (not al dente). I don’t know if that is to suit the local tastes or if it was just how they do it.

    I’m curious, is cheese common ingredient in the Philippines?

    • Raymund says:

      Yes its quite common but we only have one or two types of main cheese used for cooking. Its a type of cheddar that melts quickly like velveeta, we use them in spaghettis, baked mussels, steamed rice cakes and caldereta (spicy beef stew) to name some. And yes I tried those ones in Hong Kong they they taste quite similar except that our is more sweeter and sometimes spicer.

  19. Maia says:

    I add cream on my spaghetti to add a nice touch. When I run out of beef, I use Spam or corned beef. 🙂

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