家でのランチは大抵トーストだったりサンドイッチだったりですが、このところあまりランチに出かけていないので同じようなものが続いて飽きましたし、先日のホットドッグに使ったソーセージが余っているのも気になっていたのでお昼に珍しくスパゲティー・ナポリタンを作りました。夫がいないひとりごはんのときの定番ですが、お昼にわざわざ火を使うものを作るのは珍しい。

I usually have a piece of toast, cheese on toast or a sandwich for lunch if I’m alone at home, but I haven’t been out for lunch very often recently and sort of got tired of them.  So I made a pasta dish – it’s a Japanese style pasta and we call it “Sphagetti Napolitan”.  I guess it’s the first pasta dish Japanese made and is far from a real thing but most Japanese love it including myself.  Usually you use onion, Japanese green pepper and sausage or bacon and stir-fry the pasta with the vegetables after you cook pasta in boiling water, then pour some tomato ketchup.  (In the recent years some people use tomato sauce I think.)  Sounds horrible but you might be surprised it’s actually quite good.  I always put some Tabasco on as well.

赤パプリカではなく普通の日本のピーマンが合うとは思うのですがピーマンをわざわざ買うことがないので、赤パプリカを使いました。（赤パプリカはよく使うので大抵冷蔵庫に入っています）。もちろん、タバスコをかけて。普段作るときは夫がいない夕食なので買い物に出かけず冷蔵庫にあるものになるので、ソーセージも入りません。やっぱりソーセージが入ったほうが美味しいです。

Although we usually use Japanese green pepper, which is much smaller and thinner and strongly flavoured, I don’t buy them here.  We tend to use a lot of red and yellow peppers and there is always some in the fridge so that’s what I use instead.  There were still some left-over sausages from the other day when I made hot dogs so I used one of them as well.  Usually I make this for dinner alone when my husband is away and I don’t want to do shopping so seldom have sausage or bacon in the fridge.  I enjoy it just with vegetables but I must say adding sausage makes quite a big difference.