Homemade Spaghettios

Nostalgia Cooking

A taste of childhood

As a kid, I really didn’t eat Spaghettios that often. I could probably count the number of times on both hands. But, I loved the idea of Spaghettios. I liked the can. I liked the commercials. I liked the Chef Boyardee commercials more, though.

Like most people who are stuck inside during this global pandemic that has shut the whole country down, my screen time has gone up. A lot of that time is spent on Instagram, the notoriously aspirational social media platform. My time is usually spent looking at home renos and food. Lots of food. That’s when I saw the Spaghettios.

The person who posted the pic didn’t include a recipe, but she didn’t need to. I happened to have some ditalini in the pantry and some leftover ground beef in the fridge. I looked up the most basic of all meatball recipes and stirred extra tomato paste and anchovies into my sauce. It probably didn’t taste anything like actual Spaghettios, but it was delicious.