Yesterday was my eldest niece’s (gargantuaneater) 15th birthday. She has been celebrating it for a week long already. Last week, I hung out with her while I do some errands; afterwards we had a sumptuous dinner at a fancy restaurant. Then last Wednesday, she hung out with her friends and went to SM Mall of Asia, had lunch at Taste Asia, snack at Bread Talk and had this “terribly good” (according to her) Korean ice cream from Kiss Sweet, watched a movie and played at the Timezone. I am actually curious about the ice cream and I am considering looking for different sources of ice cream to review. And soon I will feature Taste Asia as well!

Back to gargantuaneater’s birthday… Her mom saving much for the coming holidays has no plans of preparing a sumptuous dinner but last minute changes and she considered to have anything simple for last night. So the niece invited her uncles and cousins to come over.The plan was to have Corned Beef Spaghetti, Crispy Fried Chicken, canapés, chips, cocktail cold cuts, cake and ice cream. A kiddie themed dinner for the teener. Usually, we have to add any pasta dish whenever any of my nieces and nephew celebrate their birthday, and you might ask who cooks….Who else knows how to cook pasta the way those kids will love….ME! hehehe

I have never tried cooking a pasta sauce using corned beef but my mom requested for such after she was able to try it out during her get-together time with friends. I was hesitant to cook it for the first time on my niece’s birthday because I don’t want to do some experimental cooking on her special day but nevertheless, I had no choice and has to use up whatever was available from the pantry. And you might be so curious what the family’s verdict was??? They couldn’t even say a word, because they were stuffed with mouthful of saucy pasta! My brother R said, "Ito corned beef? Masarap!" while his mouth was full. In between others heaping of pasta, they said it was delicious. They couldn’t get enough of it, and they were surprised, didn’t even notice that there was no ground beef.

Personally, I still go for my tasty, meaty sauce but this is a nice alternative. [*FACT*:I am not so fond of sweet pastas. "Eeekk", I shriek.] I want pastas with red sauce kinda sour (more Italian style) but the toddlers look for something sweet. I had to compromise, and so I made it sour with a little sweet-y kick to satisfy the kids’ and the adults’ palates. The kids and the adults love it. I prepared 2 kilos of pastas and those were devoured by 12 people, most were kids. I was so busy in the kitchen preparing 2 batches of this pasta that I wasn’t able to take photos. They forgot to take their pictures as well, too pre-occupied with their meal.

2 tbsp oil
1 head garlic, crushed
2 whole onions, chopped
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried rosemary
½ tsp dried tarragon
4 cups of canned corned beef
4 cups banana ketchup (not sweet, I used UFC to alter the sweetness of the spaghetti sauce)
4 cups sweet style spaghetti sauce
2 cups water
¾ block of quickmelt cheese, grated
1 (400g) can of sliced mushroom
½ kilo beef hotdogs or sausage, sliced
1 and ¼ block of quickmelt cheese, grated
salt and pepper


Heat up a large casserole; pour oil and sauté garlic and onion. Add all the dried herbs. Sauté until the garlic and onions are limp and very fragrant with the herbs. Add the corned beef. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour in banana ketchup, spaghetti sauce, water and the grated cheese from a ¾ block. Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese has completely melted and the sauce thoroughly boiled/simmered. Lastly, add the sliced mushrooms and sausages. Let it again simmer for 7-10 minutes. Season to taste. The sauce may appear to be thin but once it is cooled down, the sauce thickens to a good consistency.

Cook your 2 kilos of pasta according to the package direction. Use a 9x13 inch pyrex pan for each kilo of pasta. Divide the sauce into 2 equal amounts. Mix up half of the sauce to a kilo of pasta on one pyrex pan, top with grated quickmelt cheese. Do the same for the other kilo of pasta. Serve with bread and crispy fried chicken.

This was very easy to make, and less the time in making my meaty sauce. A little tweak and I can come up with a better version of this Corned Beef Spaghetti-using a better brand of corned beef, fresh herbs, fresh tomatoes and NO ketchup. I will also probably add some olives, finely diced carrots, chilis and substitute cream for the cheese.

My brother R gave me an idea of trying a liver spread base sauce and then my sister I thought of sardines. Hmm, interesting variations to try, don't you think?