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    That Famous Spaghetti From "The Bear" Lives In My Head Rent-Free, So I Recreated It At Home (And It's As Easy As It Is Delicious)

    I've been eating it ever since — and TBH, I have zero regrets.

    If you, like me, binged The Bear on Hulu so damn fast your head spun for days, I'm willing to bet you were one of these three things: exhausted (Episode 7, am I right?!), fulfilled as all hell, or hungry. For me, it was definitely that last one — or honestly, a bit of all three — and I can't imagine I'm alone.

    Carmen from The Bear in an apron looking up

    A spoiler-free recap for anyone who hasn't ventured into all things The Bear yet: Throughout eight quick episodes, Chef Carmy (played by Shameless's Jeremy Allen White) and his kitchen staff whip up some food that I'd easily place into the category of "Would Die to Eat." Of course, there are the plentiful Italian beef sandwiches dripping in savory jus, and then there are Sydney's Coke-braised short ribs that literally live rent-free in my brain. Heck, I'd even devour a plate of those herb-infused mashed potatoes from Tina!

    a plate of food

    Some context is necessary here, but again, no real spoilers. Let's just say the dish itself ends up becoming one of the most important plot points of the season. (If you know, you know.) When Carmy first starts running his late brother's restaurant, he flat-out refuses to serve his "underseasoned, oversauced mess" of a spaghetti dish — even though it was apparently a top seller.

    the men in the restaurant kitchen talking about the spaghetti

    Eight episodes later, Carmy, well, "stumbles upon" his brother's written recipe for the spaghetti and decides to cook and serve it for his staff's family meal — albeit with some liberties taken. (To be clear: When I say "recipe," I just mean a list of three ingredients.)

    recipe card

    I thought to myself, If that pasta is delicious enough to make someone see dead people, it's gotta be next-level. So, yep, I decided to recreate it at home...and I'm very glad I did. Now that I've tried it, I can confidently say it's my new go-to marinara sauce.

    To come up with a recipe that was more than just three ingredients [lovingly] scribbled on an index card, I watched the scene in which he makes it a zillion-and-five times. While a few elements are filmed, most of the spaghetti-making happens off camera — so I donned my recipe developer hat to fill in the many, many blanks.

    Here's what I came up with. First, the ingredients.

    table of ingredients

    The canned San Marzano tomatoes themselves are also pretty darn ~key~ to The Bear's plot — again, IYKYK — but if you can't find 'em or don't want to splurge on the imported stuff, use whatever canned tomatoes you can find. The results will be just as delicious.

    canned tomatoes in a store

    STEP #1: Make your basil- and garlic-infused oil.

    You'll want your basil and garlic oil to look like this before you take it off the heat.

    author's oil with an image of the oil in the show

    STEP #2: Brown your butter and sear the onion.

    onions searing in brown butter

    (How golden brown? This golden brown.)

    the underside of the onion half, browned

    STEP #3: Start your tomato sauce.

    pot of tomato sauce cooking with image of sauce starting in the show

    STEP #4: Purée the basil oil.

    In terms of texture, you'll want the mixture to look something like this once it's processed.

    processed mixture

    STEP #5: Last step, y'all! Combine the basil oil mixture with the sauce for the final 10 minutes of cook time.

    To serve, remove and discard both onion halves. Toss 1 pound of al dente spaghetti into the pot and thoroughly coat with the sauce. As with most pasta dishes, I'd highly recommend reserving a 1/2 cup of pasta water for the sauce — it helps distribute the sauce more evenly, and the starch ultimately makes the sauce thicker.

    spaghetti being mixed into the pot of sauce

    A generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and a few spare leaves of basil reaaaally take things up a notch, IMO, but don't stress if you don't have 'em.

    plated spaghetti

    As for the verdict...

    the author with a forkful of spaghetti

    It was, um...

    the author eating

    It's good. REALLY, really good. Like, "new favorite pasta" good. I now fully understand the beaming smiles of everyone in Carmy's kitchen as they devoured that dish...because that was very much me as I took my first bite.

    the author and images of people from the show enjoying the food

    If you get a chance to try this recipe for yourself, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below! ⬇️