New Zealand’s (then) Prime Minister opened a can of worms when he opened a can of spaghetti and put it on top of his homespun pizza. Back in April this year, Bill English cooked dinner for his family and posted photos of his creation on social media. Culinary uproar ensued. Some people said a pizza topped with bacon, pineapple chunks and tinned spaghetti was an abomination. Others said no, it was a South Island classic, quick to concoct and budget-friendly to boot. Cynics suggested it was an attempt to divert public attention from more serious political issues.

Yes, frozen pizzas and ready-meal spaghetti bear scant relation to their Italian origins, but the New Zealand PM’s effort was—let’s say in a class of its own. To me it was kiddie food. I remember spaghetti on toast served up on school camping trips, and there was a time when my brother and I considered Heinz tinned ravioli the height of sophistication and were forever pestering our mother to buy it.

I was in new Zealand last month on a research trip, and I have to say I found it a very meaty place. I eat fish and some seafood, but if you didn’t, or were vegan, eating out would be tricky. Across a range of eateries, meatless options were scarce. Menus often had just a single vegetarian offering, while dishes that are traditionally meatless—or could easily be made so—included meat. A Wellington restaurant, for example, had French onion soup—with added bacon bits. Why? I make this soup quite often, sometimes using a light vegetable stock, sometimes not. Bacon is not only totally unnecessary, it actually detracts from the delicious economy of the dish—a peasant recipe composed of onions, stale bread, cheese, and water.

There’s always tinned spaghetti …

I flew into Christchurch and early next morning boarded the bus to Dunedin. The trip took over five hours and in Oamaru we stopped for a thirty-minute lunch break. The driver directed us to the Lagonda Tea Rooms on Thames Street. It was a Sunday, and the Tea Rooms was one of the few places open. Inside were cabinets of cakes and slices, of sandwiches, pies (most featuring meat of some description) and a variety of things on toast. One of the few vegetarian possibilities was white bread spread with canned spaghetti and grilled cheese. I passed on the savoury options and went instead for half a piece of ginger crunch and a cup of tea.

In between working in the University of Otago library, I walked and caught local buses around Dunedin and out to nearby towns. I took note of the extensive range of old-fashioned bakery products (louise cake, lolly cake, Russian fudge, coconut ice and more) and the region’s fantastic secondhand shops. It was in one of those shops that I bought a copy of the 1952 publication The Hostess Cook Book by Helen Cox, a popular New Zealand food writer and broadcaster. On page 91 she has a recipe for ‘Spaghetti en casserole with bacon’. It goes like this:

‘(1) Open a 1-lb. tin of spaghetti and an 11-oz. tin of peas.
(2) Cook 2 eggs until hard (about 15 minutes).
(3) Place half the spaghetti in an oven dish then cover with the peas (well drained from liquid) and the eggs (sliced). Cover with the rest of the spaghetti.
(4) Cut think slices of bread into little triangles and place al over the dish, Cover with bacon rashers (rinds removed). Bake in a moderate over for 20-30 minutes until piping hot and the bacon is cooked and sizzling .. ’

Is cooking with tinned spaghetti a specifically New Zealand thing? I thought perhaps it was, but no, the Internet—where else?—has a plethora of dishes to make with tinned spaghetti. Everything from omelettes, pies and toasties to chicken spaghetti casserole.

So now you know.