Spaghetti Filipino Style

In the Philippines, spaghetti is a very popular dish and it's served in most fast food restaurants. Filipino spaghetti is characteristically sweet, creamy with lots of sauce and cheese. We also usually use pork and hotdogs for the meat ingredient but you can substitute beef or chicken mince for this recipe.

• 300 grams spaghetti noodles
• 250 grams minced pork
• 3 hotdogs, chopped
• 600 grams tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 carrot, minced
• 1 onion, minced
• 15 button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tablespoon parsley, minced
• Half red capsicum, chopped
• 2 teaspoons of white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Black pepper to taste

To make the spaghetti sauce, start by mincing the garlic, onion and carrot. Saute these on a pan with butter on moderate heat. When the onions are translucent, add in the minced pork and let it brown. Then add in the chopped hotdog pieces. After 5 minutes, put the tomato paste and mix it in the mixture. Add in the sliced mushrooms and chopped capsicum and saute for 5 minutes. Pour in the tomato sauce and evaporated milk. Add sugar, salt and pepper and let this simmer for 15 minutes. When you add in the milk to the sauce, it will lighten in color, but after a while it will become red again and the flavour of the meat and vegetables will permeate the sauce.

While the sauce is simmering, boil the spaghetti noodles until al dente. Then put the noodles in the sauce and mix it in low heat for 2 to 3 minutes to let the sauce be absorbed by the noodles.

Serve the spaghetti on a platter with a generous amount of grated cheddar cheese.

Enjoy!