STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: IRISHITALIAN SPAGHETTI

What is Irish-Italian spaghetti? Where did it come from? And why would you want to eat it? The recipe for this culinary curiosity may have first appeared in Better Homes & Gardens in the 1930s. “We still get requests for it,” the magazine’s website claims. “People can’t seem to get enough of it.”

This deep pink, slightly spicy bowl of pasta looks a little like a ragù, but tastes more like an all-American Midwestern hotdish than the offspring of two national cuisines. The dish is built around ground beef, two cans of different condensed soups — tomato and cream of mushroom — chili powder, Parmesan cheese, and red and black pepper. There’s little about the recipe that is authentically Italian, and not one ingredient that says “Ireland.” The Italians would probably use less meat, and the Irish are more likely to choose pork or lamb over beef, and there’s not a speck of potato or cabbage in the dish — even though pasta sauced with cabbage and potato is a classic Italian peasant dish that could be reimagined as Irish. Chiles and peppers do appear in regional Italian dishes, but they rarely make an appearance in Irish recipes.

Still, the magazine’s claim that the recipe has enjoyed decades of popularity is supported by the number of versions that can be found on the web — none of which varies much from the magazine’s original. The posting on epicurious.com is almost identical to that published in Better Homes & Gardens, lacking only the shredded cheese. The blogger on geniuskitchen.com, who says she grew up on the dish, cuts the beef from one pound to a quarter pound and drops all the peppers. CDKitchen.com adds some Italian seasoning to the mix, while Kraft justifies the recipe’s inclusion on its site by adding a jar of spaghetti sauce to the canned soups.

It’s possible the concept came from the Campbell’s Soup company, which debuted cream of mushroom soup in 1934. (Tomato was one of the original five condensed soups introduced by Campbell’s in the late 1890s.) But there is no evidence that the company itself created the recipes, and a search of campbellskitchen.com, the company’s recipe site, turns up nothing even vaguely similar.

But if you want to acknowledge St. Paddy’s Day in an offbeat way, this may be the dish for you. It’s inexpensive and easy to pull together — leaving you lots of time to raise a tumbler of Irish whiskey or a pint of stout to the ould sod while it simmers on the stove. — P.W.B.

IRISH-ITALIAN SPAGHETTI

(Serves 4) 1 pound ground beef ½ cup chopped onion 1 (10 ¾ oz.) can cream of mushroom soup 1 (10 ¾ oz.) can condensed tomato soup ½ teaspoon chili powder ½ teaspoon bottled hot pepper sauce ¼ teaspoon black pepper Dash ground red pepper 1 pound dried spaghetti ½ cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large saucepan, cook the ground beef and onion until meat is brown. Add the soups, chili powder, bottled hot pepper sauce, black pepper, and ground red pepper. Bring to boiling, stirring often; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 45 minutes, stirring often. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Serve sauce over hot cooked pasta. Sprinkle with cheese; pass additional sauce and cheese.

(recipe courtesy Better Homes & Gardens)