Ep 013 - Farhan Mustafa : Immigrant Spaghetti

BATCH, A Bitter Southerner Podcast

Show Notes

You can read the full story at the Bitter Southerner’s website. Here’s a link: https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2023/immigrant-spaghetti

It can also be found in our new book Food Stories: writing that stirs the pot, available here: https://bsgeneralstore.com/products/food-stories

Credits

Hosted by Kyle Tibbs Jones

Produced by Ryan Engelberger

Engineered by

The theme music for Batch was made by Curt Castle.

This episode of Batch (in fact this whole batch of food stories) was made possible by the support of E Pluribus Unum. Learn more at https://www.unumfund.org/

Plus, as promised:

Farhan’s Immigrant Spaghetti

The following amounts and ingredients are suggestions, not real rules. Like speed limits on a Southern highway.

• 1.5 lbs grass-fed ground beef, ground chicken or ground turkey

• 2 Tbsp oil

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/4 stick cinnamon

• 1/2 C diced onion

• 1/2 C diced celery

• 3/4 C diced carrots

• 1 C diced red or green bell pepper (or both)

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 1.5 Tbsp coriander powder

• 2 tsp cumin powder

• 2 tsp fennel powder

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 1/4 tsp turmeric

• 1.5 C marinara sauce

• 1 C canned, crushed tomatoes

• 1 tsp dried mint

• 2-ish C water

• 1 box spaghetti (If you’re cooking the sauce and pasta separately, then feel free to splurge on the fancy pastas that create a very starchy pasta water. That fancy pasta starch can work against you if you cook it all together though. Cheaper pasta is better for cooking in sauce)

• Chopped fresh cilantro, parsley, maybe a little mint for garnish

A few notes:

• Chop the onions, peppers and tomatoes to achieve your desired level of chunking in your sauce. Just remember if you didn’t like chunky Prego sauce growing up, you probably won’t like it now

• I cook the sauce like we would a curry in India - which means you’re frying, not sweating, the onions + carrots + celery + bell peppers. If it burns a little, just add a splash of water to cool down the temp. It’s all about cooking over medium-high heat until the oil oozes out the sides.

1. Brown the meat but don’t cook it all the way through. If you’re using beef, drain most of the fat except for a teaspoon or two (i do that for flavor). Remove to a plate/bowl.

2. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until the oil is hot. Add the bay leaf and cinnamon stick to the oil until you hear it sizzle for about 30 seconds.

3. Dump in the onions, carrots, celery and bell peppers. Cook until the onion starts browning on the edges - about 10 minutes.. Ideally, it’ll even burn a little. Stir frequently to avoid sticking and add splashes of water if it sticks.

4. Add the garlic, stir and cook until you smell it.

5. Then add all the spices at once and stir it up. Keep the heat at medium-high and cook for about 3-4 minutes until you see the oil gather at the edges of your very brown-ish colored vegetable mess.

6. Add the tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes. Keep that heat up - you’re basically “frying” the sauce. Stir often. Cook for a few minutes until you see the oil gather at the edges.

7. Add in the mint and browned meat, turn the heat down to medium-low and let it simmer for at least 15 minutes (The longer it simmers, the better).

8. Break up the pasta to fit into the pot, push the pasta down and mix it into the sauce as much as you can. Add 2-ish cups of water so it covers the noodles by a quarter inch. Bring it a boil, then cover and turn down to a hard simmer. Stir every few minutes to make sure the pasta doesn’t stick together.Add water as needed. It should be done after 10-12 minutes, depending on the pasta you use. When it’s al dente, take it off the heat and let it rest, and stir it around.

9. Dump chopped herbs on top and serve!