We Nigerians love our jollof rice! Jollof spaghetti is an adaptation of this popular dish, using spaghetti instead of rice. The inclusion of sardines and additional vegetables makes it a complete meal.
If you're looking for new ways to eat pasta, you must try Nigerian Jollof spaghetti with sardines. It is easy to make and only requires staple pantry ingredients. This delicious Nigerian-style pasta comes together quickly, is cheap to make, nutritious and packed full of flavours.
How To Make Jollof Spaghetti With Sardines
Here are the ingredients you need...
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Red bell pepper
- Scotch bonnet peppers
- Oil
- Mild curry powder
- Thyme
- Bay leaves
- Bouillon cubes
- Tomato paste
- Carrots
- Mushroom
- Sardines
- Salt
- Spaghetti
A few notes about the ingredients
- Spaghetti: The unique taste of jollof spaghetti comes from the jollof sauce. The spaghetti can be substituted with other pasta shapes, and you will still enjoy the delicious flavours of Nigerian jollof. Why not try macaroni jollof or penne jollof?
- Sardines: The idea behind this recipe is to use what you have in your store cupboard to whip up a delicious meal. You can substitute the sardines with whichever canned fish or meat you have available – tuna, canned mackerel and corned beef all work well with spaghetti jollof.
- Vegetables: Same as above, use your vegetable of choice; I like to grate the vegetables so picky hands can't remove them.
How to make it...
Unlike jollof rice, jollof spaghetti is not cooked in the sauce from the start. Instead, cooked spaghetti is mixed into the jollof sauce and allowed to simmer for a few minutes before removing from the heat. Follow the steps below to make it
Peel, then chop one of the onions.
Wash the tomatoes and slice two thinly.
Grate the carrots and the mushrooms.
Remove the stalk from the red bell pepper and scotch bonnet pepper. Add into a food processor with the remaining onion and tomatoes. Add a cup of water and blend until smooth.
Heat the oil in a saucepan under medium heat. Add the chopped onions and allow to cook until softened and translucent.
Add the curry powder, thyme and bay leaves. Finally, pour in the blended pepper mix. If, like me, you make the pepper mix in bulk and have some already, you will need two cups for this recipe.
Crumble in the bouillon cubes and cover the pan.
Leave to simmer for 20 mins. Stir at regular intervals to prevent burning. This is the jollof sauce, and you will already start to perceive the jollof aroma.
Reduce the heat and pour in the grated vegetables with the tomato paste. Leave to cook for 10 mins.
While the sauce is simmering, start the spaghetti. In a separate pot, cook the spaghetti with salt according to the pack instructions. Drain in a colander. It is good to finish the sauce and the pasta at about the same time.
Flake the sardines and add to the sauce with the sliced tomatoes. Add some salt to taste and simmer for 5 mins.
Pour the pasta into the sauce pan and mix with a tong, so the sauce coats the spaghetti.
Leave on heat for around 3 mins while mixing, then remove from heat.
Recipe FAQ
Pasta is very starchy, and all the starch go into the cooking water. It is always better to cook the pasta first, drain, then mix it in with sauce.
Related Recipes
How to make Nigerian Pepper Stew Base which you can use for this recipe.
Other pasta dishes to try...
Nigerian Jollof Spaghetti With Sardines
Ingredients
- 4 Tomatoes big
- 2 Onions
- 1 Red Bell Pepper
- 1 Scotch bonnet peppers
- ¼ cup Oil
- 1 tablespoon Mild curry powder
- 1 teaspoon Thyme
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 Bouillon cubes
- 2 tablespoons Tomato paste
- 2 Carrots medium
- 2 Mushroom big
- 2 cans Sardines 2 x 120g
- Salt to taste
- 359 g Spaghetti
Instructions
- Peel, then chop one of the onions.
- Wash the tomatoes and slice two thinly.
- Grate the carrots and the mushroom.
- Remove the stalk from the red bell pepper and scotch bonnet pepper. Add into a food processor with the remaining onion and tomatoes. Add a cup of water and blend until smooth.
- Heat the oil in a saucepan under medium heat. Add the chopped onions and allow to cook until softened and translucent.
- Add the curry powder, thyme and bay leave. Finally, pour in the blended pepper mix.
- Crumble in the bouillon cubes and cover the pan.
- Leave to simmer for 20 mins. Stir at regular intervals to prevent burning. This is the jollof sauce, and you will already start to perceive the jollof aroma.
- Reduce the heat and pour in the grated vegetables with the tomato paste. Leave to cook for 10 mins.
- In a separate pot, cook the spaghetti with salt according to the pack instructions. Drain in a colander.
- Flake the sardines and add to the sauce with the sliced tomatoes. Add some salt to taste and leave to cook for 5 mins.
- Pour the pasta into the sauce pan and mix with a tong, so the sauce coats the spaghetti.
- Leave on heat for around 3 mins while mixing, then remove from heat.
[…] loved that the flavours and name are carried on to other dishes – Native (palm oil) jollof rice, jollof spaghetti, jollof beans […]