Spaghetti

This serves two or three.

Utensils:

• Water faucet (cold water)
• Stovetop with at least two burners
• Large pot (for spaghetti)
• Pan (for sauce)
• Two hotplates (one for sauce, one for spaghetti)
• Kitchen tongs (for spaghetti)
• Metal spatula (for sauce)
• Two plates, cups, forks
• Cheese grater (for pecorino romano)
• Scrubber with handle (cleaning pot)
• Barkeeper's Friend (cleaning pan)
• Dish soap
• Dish drain (for letting pot dry)

Ingredients)

• Spaghetti (1/2 pound dried, Costco)
• Water (1/4 pot full)
• Hamburger (1/3 pound, Costco)
• Black pepper (1/8 teaspoon)
• Olive oil (1 tablespoon, Costco)
• Fennel seeds (1/4 teaspoon)
• Tomato paste (3 oz, Costco)
• Molasses (1 teaspoon)
• Italian seasonings (1/2 teaspoon)
• Garlic powder (1/4 teaspoon)
• Sat (1/2 teaspoon)
• Pecorino Romano (grated)

Fill the pot 1/4 full with water. Break the spaghetti in half and put it in the pot. Cook on stovetop, medium high. Once it starts boiling vigorously turn it down slightly, still above medium.

Add olive oil to pan and 1/3 pound hamburger and black pepper. Cook on stovetop on medium. Add salt and fennel seeds as hamburger cooks. Chop up hamburger with spatula into little pieces so it browns quickly.

Once hamburger is mostly cooked, add tomato paste, 1/2 cup water, italian seasonings, garlic powder, and molasses. Stir so that the tomato paste is spread out in the water. Once it starts bubbling, turn it down to low and keep it uncovered. Stir occasionally, trying to get it more uniformly mixed and uniformly heated.

Stir the spaghetti occasionally so that the strands do not stick together. The spaghetti is done when the noodles bend the right amount over the kitchen tongs (almost completely limp but not quite).

To serve, add a small drizzle of olive oil to the noodles and mix them with the kitchen tongs. The purpose of that oil is to keep the noodles from sticking together. Serve yourself about half, and let Kyle serve himself the rest. Put as much sauce as you want on top of yours first, then let Kyle serve himself the rest. Grate some pecorino romano on yours, then on Kyle's. Kyle will want an additional drizzle of olive oil directly on his serving.

You could serve garlic bread with this, or an extra slice of pecorino romano. If you do garlic bread, note that Kyle would prefer a single plain double-wide slice of untoasted bread instead of two slices of buttery garlic bread. Kyle will eat the sauce first and noodles last. He usually eats things separately that way.

Clean pots and pans and dishes immediately afterwards.