Ribeye Spaghetti with Billie Landry of Erath |

More than 50 years ago, during a honeymoon in New Orleans, the owner of the honeymoon apartment left Billy Landry and her husband a pair of frozen ribeyes as a wedding gift. He envisioned a steak that would cook well on the grill.

She declared, “I can’t afford a grilled steak!” With the practicality of a frugal newlywed, figure out how to make two selected cuts of beef last longer than her one meal.

As a butcher’s daughter, Landry appreciated ribeye as one of the more expensive cuts of beef. Tender ribs make up only about 10% of a cow’s total meat production. This fatty, flavorful piece of meat offers a goodness of its own. Of course, no sauce is necessary unless you want to bring out this goodness in just a few meals.

Laundry practicality won out.

She turned the first ribeye into two servings of brown gravy over rice. Then her honeymoon ribeye her number two inspired what would eventually become her family favorite. Ribeye Her Spaghetti is a roux made red tomato gravy her sauce with a bite size ribeye placed on top of spaghetti.

Ribeye spaghetti and green beans served in Billie Landry’s kitchen in Erath.

“My daughter, Geri, has embraced this diet and often sends it to our family during stressful times, such as death or illness, new babies, house moves, power outages, and flooded homes,” Landry said. rice field.

I was with Landry and her daughter Jeri Theunissen preparing a pot of ribeye spaghetti in her colorful kitchen in Erath. The words “coush coush” are adorned above her stove. This is a reference to another of her favorite recipes from John Forse’s Something Old and Something New, a collection of Cajun and Creole home-cooked recipes.

Mother and daughter joked back and forth about the variation points that have evolved as rib eye spaghetti recipes have been passed down from generation to generation.

“They are more economical,” she said.

Laundry uses thick ribeyes and begins to leave them rare in the browning process and into the sauce towards the end of the simmering time so they are fully cooked. She also adds celery and peppers later, so they hold their shape and add chunkiness to the sauce.

Jeri Schunissen and her mother, Billy Landry, prepare ribeye spaghetti in Billy’s Kitchen in Ellas.

“My family splits between smooth gravy and thick gravy. I like it very thick, made with diced and whole tomatoes. , uses only tomato sauce, except for Rotel.

Both pointed to the importance of caramelizing the onion for its sweetness, which offsets the sourness of the tomato. I remembered giving her the secret to

Landry insists on adding accents.

Marketed under the brand name Accent, monosodium glutamate (MSG) was developed by a Japanese chemistry professor over 100 years ago. This substance has long been used by Japanese cooks to isolate specific substances found in seaweed to bring more umami and flavor to their dishes. food. MSG is no longer derived from seaweed, but is made by fermenting carbohydrate sources such as sugar cane and molasses. It has acquired a tainted reputation over the years as some claim to be sensitive to it.

Believing in the anti-MSG hype, I asked Theunissen if the recipe needed it, and she shook her head.

“I never used it,” she said.

Over lunch, both mother and daughter remembered that when they were children, they were not allowed to stand in the kitchen.

“My dad was a picky eater, so I guess my mom didn’t want me to mess up,” Billy says, citing a treasured cookbook, a cooking friend and husband, as a way of cooking. I said, remembering that I learned to cook at

I listened, alternating between ribeye spaghetti and cheddar-crusted pineapple slices. The intense flavor of the rich sauce contrasts with the bright flavor of the pineapple.

“I think some people were born to cook,” Billy concludes.

rib eye spaghetti

Serves 4-5; recipe by Billy Landry

⅓ cup olive oil

Ribeye Steak 2 medium thickness

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons of light to medium brown roux of your choice

Rotel tomatoes in a 10 oz can

14.5 oz can Italian-style tomato stew

28-ounce can of tomato sauce OR 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes (selected for desired consistency)

½ to 1 bell pepper

1/2 cup sliced ​​celery

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Tony Chasher’s seasoning

1 teaspoon accent seasoning

Garlic powder as desired

Season with salt and black pepper

Spaghetti noodles in a 16 oz package

1. Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Brown ribeye on both sides in hot oil. Meat should be rare. Remove and cool.
3. Add the onions to the browned oil in a Dutch oven and sauté until soft and brown, about 10 minutes.
4. Mix roux with onions.
5. If using all tomatoes and tomato sauce, add to the onion and roux mixture. Simmer for at least 1 hour, until tomatoes begin to separate from oil.
6. Cut the ribeye into bite size cubes and add to the red gravy. Boil 15 minutes.
7. Add peppers, celery, seasonings, and garlic powder about 30 minutes before serving. At this point the ribbed eyepiece will soften.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste.
9. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti to al dente.
10. Top spaghetti noodles with sautéed green beans and canned pineapple slices and sprinkle with grated cheddar or Paula Dean’s pineapple casserole. Goes well with Cabernet.

.