The Ultimate Spaghetti Sandwich

When Barb informed that it was National Grilled Cheese Day (ummm., yesterday....) our brains went into overdrive, and seeing that we have Italy on the brain our results won't surprise anyone, since anyone who knows us knows that we have NINE MORE SLEEPS until we leave for Italy. For two weeks. I'm sorry if you're jealous. I would be too. I'm jealous of me, and I'm going. I know that I am extremely fortunate to be able to go and leave our awesome husbands with our awesome children while we take ourselves to awesome Italy. 

What I did make last night for dinner, on the day of National Grilled Cheese, was the Ultimate Spaghetti Sandwich. While we normally have garlic bread with spaghetti, or a spaghetti sandwich, I decided to combine the two. I actually remember the first time I ate a spaghetti sandwich. I was about fifteen, and we were camping with friends of ours, the Allens, who we camped with every summer at Killbear Park. Anyway, Garfield (we called him Gary back then, but his actual name was Garfield, before anyone had ever met the famous cat of that name), made a sandwich with his spaghetti, and I thought it was the weirdest thing. But then I tried it, and I almost always make one when I have spaghetti, unless we have garlic bread. I love it when it melts the butter, and the bread is all soft and squishy, it's so yummy. Steve puts Cheez Whiz on his, which I don't like. It would probably surprise you, if you know me at all, that I actually do eat Cheez Whiz, on exactly two types of food. I like Cheez Whiz on a toasted bacon sandwich (no egg, though), and I like it on celery. I think it's the saltiness that I like, but it is the only case where I don't prefer real cheese.

Really, the best thing would be to make sure there is extra spaghetti, which happens pretty much every time I make it since I always think it's never going to be enough, and have your nice spaghetti dinner, and then THE NEXT DAY make your Ultimate Spaghetti Sandwich, because it ended up seeming like way more food than usual, and I actually ate a small plate of spaghetti followed by this sandwich, which meant that I was way too full for the dessert grilled cheese I had originally planned, and I had to force myself to finish the sandwich. It was one of those times where you really are starting to feel sick, but it's so good, you hate to not eat it.  

Make your favourite pasta sauce, and cook spaghetti...Then, mix some of the pasta with sauce. You will probably need about half a cup of pasta per sandwich. Then I melted more butter in a frying pan and pressed three cloves of garlic into it, and cooked for a minute or so, then I added two slices of French bread, and this is where a bit of foresight came in handy, I put the cheese on first (I was planning on topping the spaghetti with it, kind of like you do when you have a plate of it), but I thought, oh, that will be so messy, it might not stay put, so I put I nice layer of shredded cheddar on the bread (slices of cheese would probably  be good but I had some pregrated mozarella and cheddar blend, but please do not think of using processed cheese. I guess if you love it, it's your problem, and you might as well go ahead. Real cheese is better). Anyway, carefully top with spaghetti, I actually managed it pretty well. Then top with the second slice of bread, let it cook at a fairly low temperature so that the garlic doesn't burn, then flip it over and cook until golden on both sides. I'd recommend buttering the top slice before you put it on the spaghetti. The first one I flipped worked pretty well, but the second one came apart a bit, but I plonked it all back together.

Anyway, it was pretty good. This is great because you just add whatever you like, I used cheddar mozarella blend, but you could use whatever you like and whatever you have on hand....So then it was like a nice big grilled cheese, garlic bready spaghetti sandwich. Very very delicioso, but very very filling.
You all probably have your own way of making spaghetti sauce, but here is how I make mine:

I sautee about 1/2 cup of onion and 1/2 lb of mushrooms in olive oil and butter, remove from heat, then fry hamburger with seasonings, including cinnamon when I think of it, and when mostly cooked I add the mushrooms and onions back in. Then I add one small jar of PC Original Pasta Sauce. This became my favourite sauce in university, back when we were all the master chef of the Spaghetti Sauce and Oriental Stir Fry. I can't remember eating much besides thoses things. Anyway. I love this sauce the best, and I don't like sauce with added chunks of meat (it's just too suspicious, not to mention rubbery), or mushrooms or any other flavourings. I like to add my own fresh herbs or cheeses or veggies, so I stick to plain sauce. Then I add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, and a small can of tomato paste, and stir it and cook it while the pasta boils. That's it. Cinnamon and brown sugar make a areally great spaghetti sauce, and if you've never tried it, well, you should.