Hatian Spagetti

Cooking has become a better practice for me since I had to go outside my confort zone and look for recipes of this dish.

It was on a tuesday morning when I had remembered that I had an assignment of food presentation in class on friday afternoon.

I had to draw up a budget on how to look for recipes of this specific dish. It sounded easy for me as long as the word spagetti was concerned.

I did not want to involved my First lady in this as long as I knew it was simple and easy to cook.

On wednesday I went to the supermarket and started looking for recipes. I am telling you, some recipes names became strange until I circulated in the supermarket as a lost person.

A very kind lady saw me disturbed and a bit confused about what i was looking for, she had decided to come and help me.

I said no, She can not help as long as my First lady is with me in my mind. She said, " Hello Sir, How are you? I replied with confidence and seriousness " I am doing great Madam".
She did not stop there, She continued her caring questions, " How can I help you?", I had to reply " Well, I am fine and okay, just analyzing the recipes of the dish I want to cook. But all is well".

She smiled at me and said: I am available anytime you need my help. I told her: Thank you for your assistance. I will come to you as soon as I am lost. And indeed I was lost, just that I could not behave in that situation.

I said ok. In this situation i do not want to display my weakness to any woman. Let me go through this and enjoy the challenge and experience.

Another idea came in to mind, instead of asking my First lady what I am looking for, let me make this a surprise. I opened my google again and confirmed the recipes I was searching in the supermarket.

On thursday after making sure that everything was ready, I said let me invite the First Lady at home to have fun and relax. Faithfully as usual she came and after some moments she wanted to enter in the Kitchen and make something for us as we were watching the movie titled "Letters to Juliets".

I told her Honey, what do you want to do? She replied: " Baby just something to eat". I asked her, "What is that exactly?". She replied by saying " Our favorite meals".  I laughed and said " Can I ask you a favor?". She looked at me in the eyes and replied " go on Darling." I told her let me just make an Omellette and toasted bread for us as we are finishing with the movie". It wont take time and I do not want you to stay alone for long.

She agreed with a smile and in my heart I said thank you God for this wonderful surprise she is going to live today.

I entered in the Kichen and locked it. I told her i did not want the smoke to interfere with a our great perfume and atmosphere that we had already created.

I put together all the ingredients on the table. The following are what I needed to make the Hatian Spagetti.

• 1lb spaghetti
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 1 cup white onions
• 1 teaspoon thyme (fresh, chopped)
• 5 chicken sausages (or hot dogs or any other types of links or meat)
• 1 ½ tablespoons chicken bouillon powder (low sodium preferably)
• salt (to taste)
• 1 ½ cups reserve pasta water
• pepper (to taste)

I Boilled pasta according to package instructions two minutes short of recommended cooking time. In a heavy large saucepan, I heated oil and added tomato paste. I cooked tomato paste for 3 – 4 minutes while stirring occasionally. I added garlic, onion and thyme and cooked for 5 minutes while occasionally stirring. I added the hotdogs and chicken bouillon and continued browning the meat. I added the cooked pasta and stir to scrape up all the deliciousness on the bottom of the pan while gradually adding the reserved pasta water. I lowered the heat in order to avoid the burning of the sauce and cooked for another 3-5 minutes, the starchy pasta water will help distribute the sauce and thicken, the finished dish will not have any excess liquid in the bottom of the pan, all the sauce will be clinging to the noodles.I added crushed red pepper because she loves it. I seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, but Iwas careful as she may not need any more salt due to the chicken bouillon.
After that, I had to serve to her the food being hot.


  This is exactly how the dish looked like.

After having her encouragement, on Friday morning I had to cook the same on friday morning and she brought the dish to school with passion because she was very proud of the work that I did on thursday.



Note: For transport to a potluck I would recommend that after you put the spaghetti in a serving bowl add some extra pasta water, maybe about ½ cup, it will eventually be absorbed by the pasta and your spaghetti won’t be dry by the time you serve the dish. Enjoy the Experience and make a day memorable in someone's life.