The Pasta In A Can Topic

[SobaAddict70]

In the Tater Tot thread, Carrot Top mentions something about perfectly warmed Spaghetti-Os served over crispy Tater Tots.

I haven't had Chef Boy-ar-dee in a long long while, but I do remember Beefaroni and their signature mini ravioli things. A bowl of Beefaroni does bring back memories from my childhood.

Campbell's alphabet and vegetable soup is another example of a product that was "done right", although these days might be looked down upon. What's not to like though? Lots of vegetables, tasty tomatoey soup and those adorable alphabet pasta.

Got any tales to tell?

Soba

[Gifted Gourmet]

This is starting to look like a tasting menu .. from the 50's!

Amuse bouche: Miracle Whip en gelee

Entree: Tator Tot Cassoulet with Foam of Chef Boyardee Ravioli

Dessert: minimarshmallows with frozen fruit cocktail loaf

[Jason Perlow]

I concur with the Campbells soups, especially the alphabet soup, but I never liked any of the Chef Boyardee products.

As i understand, the original Boiardi (he changed his name so that it would be pronounced properly) products were quite good, he was the first to can pasta sauces and sell them in combination with sphagetti. Most people probably don't realize Hector Boiardi was a real person and not a fictional character created for the product brand.

http://www.snopes.com/business/names/boyardee.asp

http://www.clevescene.com/issues/1999-09-2...lendar/nd2.html

[slbunge]

My two favorite meals as a kid were Spaghetti-Os and Chef Boyardee's Beef Ravioli. Neither were complete without a heaping spoonful of small curd cottage cheese.

Yep, my friends thought I was weird.

[Chef Shogun]

For me it begins and ends with Spaghetti-O's. Heated in microwave with salt, fresh ground pepper, and whatever hot sauce I'm interested in on that day. Serve alongside PB&J for the perfect Saturday lunch.

Things that don't work so well: Spaghetti-Os, salsa, and tuna from one of those sealed foil bags.

[tryska]

I too was a big fan of spaghetti-Os and meat ravioli when i was a kid.

now spaghetti-os smell like vomit to me, and i haven't had meat ravioli in a while. maybe i'll pick up a can soon.

as far as campbells - cream of mushroom, and bean and bacon are my two favorites.

i also like the chunky clam chowder and chicken corn chowder every once in a while.

[Jake]

I loved Campbells soups as a child but I never liked Chef Boyardee. My brother loved Spaghetti-O's and Alphaghetti, but I couldn't stand the stuff. When he got that, I got beans on toast.

[Hest88]

I love the beef ravolis, but was never able to tolerate the other Chef Boyardee products.

Campbell's Chicken and Stars!!! Perfect on a cold day.

[Jason Perlow]

I used to like Progresso Chickarina soup until it became way too salty. They also used to make a solid minestrone.

[Carrot Top]

This is starting to look like a tasting menu .. from the 50's!

Amuse bouche: Miracle Whip en gelee

Entree: Tator Tot Cassoulet with Foam of Chef Boyardee Ravioli

Dessert: minimarshmallows with frozen fruit cocktail loaf

←

You show great talent at these matchings, GG.

Are you ready for our second business venture? "Tasting Menus a la 50's".

Small diner-like places with jukeboxes and booths, waitresses on roller skates, and formica-topped tables where we will serve prix-fixe tasting menus of these sorts of items.

Low food cost....lots of upscale entertainment value....we can charge an arm and a leg.

Absolutely no nutritive value so the customers will break out in zits therefore requiring them to visit our shop next door, "Soup on your Face".

Gosh, I just love you. You are a business-idea generating mensch.

Must go. Hairstyles to consider. Bouffant? or ponytail....

[Carrot Top]

There is only one Great One in the world of canned spagettis. It has the ultimate in gooey disgusting messy sweet tomato-y goodness.

No, no, these Spagetti-O's will not Do.

They went all wrong with the silly notion of twising a perfectly good sauce-flecking piece of wet soft spagetti into a circle. Wrong, wrong texturally. It is vital to be able to slurp and swallow.

And Chef Boyardee is always all about meat. Meatballs, meat bits, meat flavor. How to taste the sugary tomato sauce when it is embellished with hearty meat? Pah.

The Great One. Is France-American Spagetti.

Plain, simple, pure. The ultimate mess.

[Gifted Gourmet]

You show great talent at these matchings, GG.

Are you ready for our second business venture? "Tasting Menus a la 50's".

←

and the wine pairing for the fifties menu? Thunderbird? Gallo* or Boone's Farm?

or perhaps a pairing with a shake or malted?

*Until the Sixties, aperitif/dessert wines outsold table wines almost 10 to one. Then in the Fifties Gallo made the first special natural wines. Like Thunderbird (the story was that the drink's popularity was discovered in New Orleans, where consumers combined lemon juice with White Port; the Gallos saved them the trouble; they combined it in a wine bottle).

[designchick88]

I still eat Campbell's chicken noodle soup when I'm sick. I think it's more the psychological association with it than the taste, which I can't stand when I'm not sick. Anything I was given as a kid and told "this will make you feel better" still tends to make me feel better now.

As for Spaghettios, I loved them until I was about 12 and got violently ill shortly after eating some. That was the end of that. As tryska said, I think Spaghettios have a distinctly vomitous aroma and that combined with the fact that I did actually vomit them up one time means no more Spaghettios for me. I never did like the meat ravioli but that's one of my brother's favorite foods, to this day.

[petite tête de chou]

Spaghetti-O's and the regular spaghetti were my favorites as a child. We never had any of the other kinds. I would put lots of butter, salt and pepper (lots of pepper) and parmesan cheese on top and eat it with smooshy white bread. I ate them through high school when I was, ahem, experimenting with the 'munchies' but don't eat them now. Aside from the nostalgia factor I just don't have any interest in 'em.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I would put lots of butter, salt and pepper (lots of pepper) and parmesan cheese on top and eat it with smooshy white bread.

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Carb-o-Rama??

[munchymom]

I always liked the Spaghetti-O's with meatballs, but NOT the ones without meatballs. The sauces were different - the no-meatball ones had a sauce with a weird sweet flavor, and the meatball ones had a sauce I liked. I also liked the Chef Boyardee beef ravioli, though now I shudder to think what must have been in that "beef" - what a weird texture it had. I haven't had any canned pasta since college, though.

[peppyre]

My Grandma used to love the Heinz Macaroni and Cheese from Britain. I think it's what she lived on during the war. It was vile. I can still taste and smell it to this day even though I haven't even seen a can in over 12 years. Yuck! I did eat Spaghetti-O's as kid with white bread, and Heinz beans on toast was my favorite and still is. The ones directly from Britain were the best.

[therese]

I do remember eating various sorts of canned pasta as a child, and finding them, well, repulsive.

My kids wanted to try them a while back, so I got a few types for them to try. Neither one would even swallow the Spaghetti-O's (ran to the sink to spit them out), and the other cans are still in my pantry.

Sounds like they'll make excellent donations to this year's Thanksgiving canned food drive.

[Behemoth]

I remember the first time I had Spaghetti-O's. It was at a sleepover at a friend's house whan I was 10 or 11. I was aghast at how much sugar there was in the sauce -- not at all what I was used to, I couldn't eat so I slipped my friend my leftovers. I remember liking chef boyardee beef ravioli, though when I tried to relive the magic a couple years ago I found it pretty inedible.

I also don't like tater tots, so there

[wlg]

While staying in a small hotel in Tasmania early in my career, I noticed spaghetti on toast on the breakfast room service menu. This was the first time I'd heard of this, and figured it was some local unique dish prepared as a treat for the guests. A couple of Japanese colleagues down the hall apparently must have thought so as well, but acted on their curiosity before I did. I know because I saw an untouched plate of plain old canned spaghetti in tomato sauce on toast out in the hall on the tray late the second morning, along with the usual breakfast wreckage. (I can't imagine what sort of shock this might have been, especially if one's English wasn't that good.....) I gave it a miss myself and saved the adventure for the seafood.

[Bux]

According to Harold McGee in the new edition of On Food and Cooking, the taste for pasta cooked for minutes rather than hours started in Naples int he 18th century and spread thoughout Italy by the end of the 19th century. The term al dente appeared after WWI. I'm not sure if any of this has much of a relationship to canned pasta. It's not like it's Chef Boyardee's medieval recipe.

Japan was the first place I had ever seen potato salad sandwiches. Spain was the second. Taste in food is very subjective.l

[ladyyoung98]

yep..i was hooked on chef boyardee ravioli when i was a kid and if the truth be known.....i still indulge in it from time to time..soups...campbeless vegetable beef soup...no substitute for me on this one...my mother seem to think i got my love for the stuff when she was pregant with me...apparanlty she craved it all the time

[bloviatrix]

Like with many American classics (ie Oreos), in my family we resorted to the alternative brands which were kosher. In the case of "pasta in a can", this meant we had Butoni Spaghetti Twists. As a kid I loved them. They were rotini in marinara sauce. Occasionally, my mom would let me take cold spaghetti twists to school for lunch. I was very popular on those days and all my friends wanted to have some. I also went through a stage where I would eat them straight from can without heating them. I wonder if they even make them anymore.

[Gifted Gourmet]

my mother seem to think i got my love for the stuff when she was pregant with me...apparanlty she craved it all the time

It is only gloopy noodles in a sickly sweet thin tomato sauce in a can, for heaven's sake! That can not be passed on genetically! It isn't on the strands of DNA one gets from one's parents ...

[Susan G]

I thought Chef Boyardee's Beef Ravioli was as good as food could get when I was 12. Haven't had it in about 15 years: The texture? I can't go there anymore!

My grandmother made Campbells soup on most afternoons with grilled cheese sandwiches..........alphabet soup was great with saltines! I still liked the cream of mushroom, but I haven't tried it again since I started making my own mushroom soups........I might find it too salty now.

My guilty pleasure is Pringles. There. I've said it.