The Clever Way Chef Boyardee Prepped Pasta For His 1930s Tomato Sauce Recipe

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By now, you might already be aware that Chef Boyardee was an actual person and not just a brand — born Ettore Boiardi, outside of Piacenza, Italy. His food empire started simply enough when he opened an Italian restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1924. The success of that establishment led to bottling his spaghetti sauce and selling it, which grew into the Chef Boyardee brand that we all know today.

Between Boiardi's 1930s cookbook, "Famous Italian Dishes," which featured his Boyardee brand of Italian-style sauce and cheese in most of the recipes, and a 2011 cookbook, "Delicious Memories," published by his niece Anna Boiardi, some have been able to piece together his original spaghetti dish. Reports on making the dish all seem to highlight one important aspect: how he prepped the pasta before saucing it. After cooking the spaghetti in salted water and draining it, it was immediately tossed in butter and parmesan cheese. It was then topped with the tomato-meat sauce — not tossed.

Tossing the cooked pasta in butter and cheese creates a delicious, glossy layer that the sauce clings to, and prevents the noodles from sticking together. The pasta absorbs the flavors of the butter and salty cheese. And, since butter and parm are both ingredients containing salt, this amps up the entire flavor profile, helping to harmonize the rich dairy and acidic tomato sauce.

Ettore Boiardi's spaghetti sauce was actually a meat sauce, not a simple tomato sauce, according to "Delicious Memories." In recreations of the recipe on YouTube, you will see canned tomatoes being pressed through a sieve or put through a food mill, and the seeds discarded. This watery tomato liquid would serve as a base that reduces down amidst the sauteed diced onions, carrots, and ground beef. He also included mushrooms and fresh basil in his original recipe.

There are plenty of ways to riff on Boiardi's spaghetti sauce. One of the easiest ways would be to make it a spicy dish with some fiery crushed Calabrian chilis, which could be added when sauteing the onions and aromatics. Since the recipe doesn't have any garlic, it could be easily upgraded by stirring in a generous spoonful of pesto. Another way would be to up the creaminess of the dish by stirring in goat cheese or cream cheese near the end, then tossing with the spaghetti noodles directly for full coverage — almost like an elevated Hamburger Helper recipe.