Spaghetti with what?

We had our first family Christmas party in AGES yesterday.  (This is the seventh Christmas Chuck and I have been together, and this was his first family Christmas party.  Does that put it into context?)  It was so nice to see family at something other than a funeral.  A few people couldn't make it, due to some nasty weather, but we still had over a dozen people here.

I kept the menu pretty simple.  We had shrimp cocktail, chips and salsa, and baked stuffed mushrooms (the last thanks to my cousin Wendy and her husband Ted) for appetizers.  The main meal was ham, green beans, carrots, Aunt Diane's vegetable quiche, bread, and baked spaghetti.  Dessert included Oreo truffles (of course), fruit salad (again thanks to my aunt), Mum's apple pie, ice cream (a necessity at every Crofts gathering, no matter the season), sugar cookies, and some fantastic cranberry pistachio biscotti (another Wendy and Ted item).

The baked spaghetti is my Aunt Diane's recipe, and it was a staple at every family gathering when I was a kid.  My cousin Jeff and my brother Dan used to push each other out of the way in order to get to the dish of baked spaghetti.  They were more civilized about it yesterday, but I made a double batch, just in case.

It's simple - four ingredients (six, if you count the seasonings) - and they're not ingredients you might think to put together, but they combine to make something that I definitely include on my list of comfort foods. I have "slimmed down" the original recipe, which calls for a pound of bacon, which you fry until crisp, and then you cook the onions in the bacon fat. Can you feel your arteries hardening?  I make it with less than half the bacon in the original recipe, and then drain off all but a tablespoon or two of the bacon fat before cooking the onions.  It's still not a particularly healthy dish, but I love it.

Spaghetti with Bacon

Preheat oven to 250˚F

1 pound spaghetti
4 - 6 ounces of bacon (original recipe calls for a pound)
2-3 onions
3-5 cans tomato paste (I usually use 3)
garlic salt, pepper

Cook spaghetti according to package. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.
Fry bacon until crisp; drain on paper towels.
While bacon is frying, chop onion. When bacon is cooked, drain off all but 1-2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan. Add onion to remaining bacon fat and and brown onions.
Add tomato paste to frying pan, and mix with onions. After heating mixture, add to cooled spaghetti.
Break bacon into small pieces and add, along with a little garlic salt and pepper, to spaghetti. Spread in a 8” or 9" square pan. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 250˚F.