Chicago Halsted Street Spaghetti Recipe (Family Restaurant Recipe)
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Jump to RecipeThis Halsted Street Spaghetti recipe came from my great-grandparent’s restaurant in the Chicago stock yards in the 1950s – a vintage family recipe! It’s an American spaghetti recipe with veggies, tomato sauce, and cheese. Definitely not from the Italian side of my family… but hey, I love a good retro classic.
This Chicago spaghetti recipe is a true wonder. My Grandma C wrote down this recipe in 2010 (so says the notecard I found this recipe on). I’m writing down the recipe as is… Definitely more of an American recipe than an Italian one, but I’m all for preserving family history here!
My great-grandpa owned a restaurant named Connell’s Lunch, it was next to the Chiapetti lamb packing plant on Halsted Street in Chicago. I’ll have to get the exact dates of operation from my dad, but I believe it was started in the 1950s. This was one of the recipes they served at the Halsted Street lunch counter. My dad says he remembered being a little kid in the 1950s and hanging out around the lamb packing plant and would talk to the workers who were outside smoking on their lunch breaks. Definitely a different time!
This Chicago Halsted Street Spaghetti Recipe Is:
- Cheesy
- Creamy
- Loaded with Veggies
- Kind of an Irish/Italian/American mash-up of flavors
- Vintage from the 1950’s
- Definitely one I need to recreate!
A Retro Spaghetti Recipe from the Irish
My dad’s side of the family is Irish, and this spaghetti recipe is definitely not authentic to Italy or anything remotely Italian. With butter, milk, and American cheese (omgggg) the Italian side of me is a little confused at the combo. However, this recipe is an important piece of family history, so it shall be kept here in the family archives.
Is American Cheese Different Now that When It Was Created?
A lot of my family recipes, like the one below, and other retro cookbooks have ‘Grated American Cheese’ as one of the ingredients. The American Cheese of today is a soft cheese, especially if you get those slices individually wrapped in plastic. It would be difficult to grate. Upon reading about the history of American cheese, it seems that it’s always been a softer blend of cheddar and colby cheeses, among others. I’m going with using the sliced American cheese below, but am interested in the thickness and texture of the American cheese of the past. And yes, I think about this often.
What’s In This Chicago Spaghetti Recipe?
- Green Peppers & Onion
- Spaghetti – one of my favorite noodles, definitely makes the top 10! I like this long classic spaghetti pasta for all my recipes.
- Diced tomatoes
- Butter – I like to use unsalted butter to reduce the amount of sodium in my cooking.
- Black pepper
- American Cheese – My great grandparents had ‘American cheese’ listed in their restaurant recipe, so I’m sticking with it!
- Whole Milk – if you’re going to add milk to this recipe, add Whole Milk for the creamiest milk possible!
How Do I Make This Chicago Spaghetti Recipe?
The below recipe was pretty much written down by my grandma, so these are her words (not mine!):
- Boil a large pot of salted water, add spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain and since the spaghetti in cold water.
- Begin by doing a small dice on the onion and pepper.
- Saute the peppers and onions in the butter, about 10 minutes until soft.
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl: cooked spaghetti, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and pepper.
- Fill ingredients in a 9×13 inch pan. Add milk when you can see it in the pan (but not too much… you can always add more if its dry). Top with grated or sliced cheese.
- Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and spaghetti is hot, about 10-15 minutes.
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Vintage Chicago Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti cooked and rinsed in cold water
- 2 cans tomatoes with juice
- 2 green peppers chopped
- 2 onions chopped
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
- American cheese Grated or sliced
- Milk
Instructions
- Boil a large pot of salted water, add spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain and since the spaghetti in cold water.
- Begin by doing a small dice on the onion and pepper.
- Saute the peppers and onions in the butter, about 10 minutes until soft.
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl: cooked spaghetti, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and pepper.
- Fill ingredients in a 9×13 inch pan. Add milk when you can see it in the pan (but not too much… you can always add more if its dry). Top with grated or sliced cheese.
- Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and spaghetti is hot, about 10-15 minutes.
Nutrition
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Would love to make this. What size can/box tomatoes? Thank you.