Espaguetis (Dominican Spaghetti) will help you surprise friends and family with this unusual but flavorful spaghetti dish. Be prepared for encores.
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I was caught off-guard the first time I was served a plate of Dominican Espaguetis, having always been accustomed to my pasta al dente, a la italiana. Well. This spaghetti was positively bathed in an orange gleam of oil, with shards of green peppers, chunks of salami, and, of all things, vinegar (!) thrown into the mix. But a bigger shock still was to see the spaghetti sharing a plate with a mound of rice. Where I’m from, spaghetti takes second stage to no other cereal, and carries a meal on the shoulders of its own multifarious merits.
As far as I was concerned, this was nothing less than blasphemy.
Spaghetti a la Dominicana
I shunned los espaguetis for a long time, turning my nose up at the incognito noodles. Until one day, we loaded up the truck en route to a velorio (or wake) for one of my husband’s relatives in the campo. It took us longer to get there than expected, and when we did, we discovered that the food had run out. Starving, we were given the keys to an aunt’s house, where we proceeded to whip up something quick for our rather large group of children, elderly, and your basically famished adults. The nearest colmado, however, could only offer us one option for an economical and plentiful meal: espaguetis.
Hunger having weakened my resolve, and for fear of appearing the spoiled gringa in the campo, I had no choice but to cease and desist my anti-espaguetis campaign. With a tinge of picante, procured in the form of hot peppers straight from the auntie’s garden, and no rice to upstage the star of the show, I found myself enjoying spaghetti in a whole new way. I think I ate two plates.
If a moral were to be attached to this story perhaps most apropos would be: never judge a spaghetti by its sauce. Or, ask yourselves, what’s in a spaghetti? A spaghetti by any other cooking method would still taste as sweet. Okay, well, not sweet, per se, but just as good. Different, but good. That’s it – ¡viva la diferencia!
About our recipe
Not two homes have the same Dominican-style spaghetti recipe, so as always, here we'll go with Aunt Clara's family recipe, which you can, of course, adapt and modify to your taste, or family traditions.
Let us know more in the comments about your own Dominican Spaghetti recipe.
Jill, a member of our original team (where we knew her as Aunt Jane), and contributor to our book, is Canadian, mom to two Canadian-Dominican boys and resided in the Dominican Republic for several years.
Dominican Espaguetis (Dominican-Style Spaghetti)
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti [0.43 kg]
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 lb Dominican "salami" [0.43 kg] (Amazon affiliate link)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion , large diced
- 1 bell pepper cut into small cubes
- 1/4 cup pitted green olives
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 tbsp capers (optional)
- 4 plum tomatoes cut into small cubes
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 1/4 tbsp vinegar (optional)
- 1/2 cup evaporated milk (optional)
- 1/4 tsp pepper or to taste
- 1/4 cup ground Parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
How to boil spaghetti
- Boil the spaghetti until slightly softer than al dente having added 1 teaspoon of salt to the water (set aside remaining salt). Drain the water and set spaghetti aside.
How to make dominican spaghetti
- Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Cut the salami into cubes. Cook and stir the salami until it browns. Lower heat to medium-low. Add onions, pepper, olives, garlic, and capers and cook and stir for a minute, or until onions become translucent. Add tomatoes and oregano, simmer covered until the tomatoes are cooked through (3-5 mins).
- Add tomato sauce and vinegar (do not add vinegar if you'll use milk). Stir to mix. Add milk and the spaghetti and mix well. Stir until the milk is mixed through, but do not let it boil or the milk will curdle. Season with pepper and salt to taste.
- Serve hot with tostones or green salad. Garnish with the cheese.
I'm used to the Dominican sofrito, tomato paste, oil and of course spaghetti version. Def has that Dominican gusto.
Amazing recipe for Espagetis Dominicana (especially with the milk) my family loved it and my husband said it reminded him of back home. Thank you soo much Tia Clara!
I'm sorry you don't find the difference LC. I was raised in the States and our typical spaghetti dish has a very thick sauce which this does not. In addition, we don't typically use capers or green olives in our sauces here in the States. This recipe is very simple… Read more »