Philadelphia Spaghetti From 1932 (as cooked on Catharine Street)

Alright - I got the street wrong when I was looking at the map. It happens.

Catherine Street is not a very short street. It basically runs across the entirety of Philadelphia from the Delaware river to the Schuylkill river, a length of about two and a half miles. The importance of Catharine Street as it pertains to this recipe is that most of it would have been in the Italian neighborhood. It crosses through the Italian Market which runs north and south on 9th street.

Southeastern Pennsylvania is the mushroom capital of North America, so fresh mushrooms were readily available in Philadelphia in the 1930's.

Since you said to tell you the story, I'll add to the comment I left below. My grandmother lived on the 700 block. On the corner, was a little corner grocery story owned by her son, my uncle Emmet, who was also my Godfather. There is an art museum on the block, and the rest is residential. The neighborhood is Italian American, and we spent every Sunday with my grandparents as well as all the big holidays. We had some type of pasta every Sunday. We called the tomato sauce "gravy." And, after eating the pasta, we had the meat cooked in the grave and a salad. I do not ever remember the gravy being made with bacon. The pork that was used was usually spare ribs, which they first broiled in the oven and then cooked in the sauce for many hours along with meat balls and brociole.

After watching Pasta Grannies, that looks closer to real Italian sauces they cook there. I suspect the bacon subs for pancetta.

In the '70s, mom and dad would take me to Catharine Street to eat at Walt's King Of Crabs. 2nd and Catharine. Red and white gingham table cloths, wooden mallets. Best seafood I've ever had.

My family is from Philadelphia and my great grandparents lived on Catherine St. Their house was right at the border of the traditional Italian Market district, though my family is not Italian, lol. The Italian Market area sits right above Washington Ave, which is generally considered the border of the South Philadelphia neighborhood, which has had a large Italian American presence.

A recipe from an old cookbook and a “what was on sale” mashup. This is as close to a perfect Sunday episode as it can get for me.

"Just smile and nod" is one of my regular refrains!

I love it! I used to live at 3rd and Catherine, but now I am a few blocks away. I will be trying this!

lmao. this is such a shock to see my specific neighborhood mentioned in your video, i've lived on catherine many times. I'm a proud south philadelphian and been a fan of yours since the coke videos :)

I mentioned to my grandmother, born early 1930s era in western Pennsylvania, that I had seen multiple videos about older recipes, ones from her childhood timeframe, that had much longer cooking times for pasta. Her response was that she does remember pasta being cooked to a much softer level, even by the families of Italian heritage, than it's normally cooked to today.

Hi Glen I have two grinders that were my Grandmothers. They have different sized dies you can use. Fine is basically paste, medium is sort of minced, large is sort of fine chopped and if you leave the die off it's sort of course chopped. They make great sausage and ground beef.

I used to live one block below Catherine at 12th and Montrose, a couple of blocks away from the Italian Market on 9th. Best pasta I ever had was from Palizzi on 12th. I live in Tennessee now and am enjoying the Philly memories. Thanks for this!

824 Catherine St was the location of Palumbo’s Restaurant, which boasted celebrity diners such as Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio.

I like your style man. Old recipes are the truth.

What an odd coincidence ! I was having lunch today with my brother and his wife, and she asked me about my recipe for meat sauce. I don't typically follow one; but I described what I did. And then I see this ! I sent her the link. I like that this sauce looks almost thick enough to stand on. I hate watery sauces; but this one looks delicious.

I love the comments from the Philly folks! I grew up in Philadelphia. It had several nicknames. The city of brotherly love, the city of homes and not least, the city of neighborhoods! Everyone was and is proud of their little slice of Philadelphia with its own bit of history, cuisines and celebrations. Philadelphia was and is the original quintessential American melting pot. So, I'm not surprised that Catherine Street shows up with its own spaghetti recipe!

Splash of the pasta water never hurts👍👍

When I was kid in the 60's, we asked what was on sale....meaning what's for dinner!