Dominican Spaghetti
Overview
Dominican spaghetti is a Caribbean dish, not an African one, and the distinction matters on a platform documenting African food. It belongs to the Dominican Republic, where Italian migrants arriving in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought pasta into a kitchen that already had its own strong idea of what a tomato sauce should be. What resulted is recognisably Dominican rather than Italian. The base is sofrito, the sautéed onion, pepper, garlic and coriander mixture that underpins cooking across the Spanish speaking Caribbean, and the sauce carries green olives, capers and raisins alongside beef, pork or shredded chicken. That combination of briny, sweet and savoury in one sauce is a Hispanic Caribbean signature with roots reaching back through Spain to the Moorish kitchens of North Africa. That last connection is the only thread linking this dish to the continent, and it is a long and indirect one. Dominican spaghetti is presented here as what it is, a Caribbean pasta dish rather than an African one, and it sits in the Worldwide Recipes collection for that reason.
Ingredients
Directions
- 1
Boil the spaghetti in salted water until just short of al dente. Drain and set aside.
- 2Make the sofrito
fry the onion, bell pepper and garlic in oil until soft, then stir in the chopped coriander.
- 3
Add the meat and cook until browned.
- 4
Stir in the tomato sauce and tomato paste and cook for a few minutes until the raw tomato flavour has gone.
- 5
Add the olives, capers and raisins and simmer until the sauce thickens.
- 6
Season with salt and pepper.
- 7
Add the drained spaghetti to the sauce and toss so every strand is coated.
- 8
Serve hot.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Deborah Olayiwola- Undercook the pasta at the boil. It finishes in the sauce and overcooked spaghetti turns to paste once tossed.
- The raisins are not a mistake and should not be left out. The sweetness against the briny olives and capers is the whole point of the sauce.
- Build the sofrito properly and give it time. It is the flavour base and rushing it leaves the sauce flat.
- Any pasta shape works, though thin spaghetti or angel hair is the Dominican preference.
Questions cooks ask
What makes this different from Italian spaghetti?
The sofrito base and the additions. Dominican spaghetti is built on sautéed onion, pepper, garlic and coriander rather than an Italian soffritto of onion, carrot and celery, and it carries green olives, capers and raisins in the sauce. That sweet, briny, savoury combination is characteristic of Hispanic Caribbean cooking and would be unusual in Italy.
Why are there raisins in a savoury pasta sauce?
Because sweet and savoury together is a defining feature of Hispanic Caribbean cooking, inherited from Spain and, further back, from Moorish North African influence on Spanish food. The raisins balance the salt of the olives and capers. Leaving them out gives a perfectly good tomato sauce, but not a Dominican one.
What protein works best?
Beef, pork or shredded chicken are all standard, and Dominican households often use whatever is left over from a previous meal, which is part of how the dish came about. Sliced sausage or salami is also common. The sauce is robust enough to carry any of them.
Can it be made ahead?
The sauce, yes, and it improves overnight as the olives and raisins settle through it. Keep it separate from the pasta and combine them when reheating, since pasta left sitting in sauce goes soft. The sauce keeps three days refrigerated and freezes for three months.
Reviews
4 reviews
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Abeg I was skeptical about raisins in savory pasta o, but e sweet sha! Used halal ground beef from the Somali market here in Minneapolis. The olives and capers balanced out the sweetness nicely. Just one thing, 1 can of tomato sauce made mine a bit too loose so I had to simmer it much longer than 20 mins to get the sauce thick. Still very good.
chale this recipe is spot on. found all the capers and stuffed green olives at Kroger here in Columbus easily. i used ground beef for the meat step. that sofrito with fresh coriander smells so good when it hits the hot oil oo. next time i will add a bit more tomato paste to make it even thicker.
Herh, raisins inside spaghetti sauce? i was doubtful oo. But i made it with shredded chicken today for afternoon food. The capers gave it a nice sharp bite to balance the sweet raisins. My sister says her friend from DR puts evaporated milk in hers too, but this simple one is very nice paa.
raisins in spaghetti sounded strange chale, but i tried it. grabbed the capers and green olives from tesco down in croydon. the sweet and salty mix with the tomato paste is actually dangerous oo. my kids loved it paa.