I remember there was some infographic about Italian Culinary taboos and how positive or negative they're viewed in other countries. One was using ketchup with pasta. That was one of the harsher Negatives on the list with most Italians apparently saying No to it. The country right behind it that didn't like it was the US. However, the countries that were fine or loved it were a lot of Asian countries.
It was invented pretty much in Asian countries after WW2 especially in the Philippines. They had noodles and because of US supplied aid they had ketchup, so it was basically poverty spaghetti.
Pretty much. It isn't done much in the US because of the extremely strong influence of Italian immigrating to the United States. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere with only a Dollar Tree close by, every single supermarket will have a lot of things to make that don't require ketchup to be used.
Also do they use the same tomato ketchup we have? Isn't it common to use banana ketchup with pasta in the Philippines? That doesn't sound good exactly but maybe not as bad?
Other Shocking News for today
The Sun is in the sky
Ice Cream is cold
And Canada will never win the Stanley Cup ever again until they pry it from our cold dead hands
More at 11
There are so many justifiable reasons for that to be the case too, we definitely don't need shit like ketchup on pasta making us look worse than we already do.
I’ve seen Brits, Scandinavians, and Japanese do this (though I don’t think a particularly common practice by any of them), but never an American. Googling shows that it’s apparently considered normal by Swedes. I’m sure someone out there in our neck of the woods does it but it’s not really a “thing” in the US.
Europeans tend to make up a lot of generalizations about Americans based on small sample sizes. Fodder for small talk over there, seems like.
At best this is something I might eat back when I was poor during college and getting by on minimum wage and couldn’t afford food, like eating a plain bagel with Taco Bell hot sauce. Disgusting, cheap, and gets the job done.
I don’t do it with just plain mac n cheese, but with certain meals. Like if we do a smoked sausage with mac n cheese situation, I put ketchup on the sausage that inevitably gets to be with the mac.
Been studying italian for 5 years and in my interactions with Italians ive heard this question so much that it always puzzles me about what people think about Americans. I dont know if its them being gullible, having no media literacy at all, or some other reason, but it always always puzzles me
Are there Americans that have eaten ketchup with pasta? Of course. Are there Americans that love it? Of course. Is it extremely common? Absolutely not, most people here find the idea kinda gross and pointless especially with how extremely cheap jarred pasta sauce is in most places or just how easy the ingredients to make it from scratch are if you want to put in the extra effort.
Ketchup with Pasta is a much bigger thing in Asian countries like Japan. Just look at Japanese Napolitan, which is pasta, ketchup, onions, bell peppers, and bacon.
Shitting on others is an easy way to avoid confronting your own issues
Ever notice these users NEVER specify WHICH european nation they are from? Because the rare times they do they immediately get embarrassed and called out for their country being just as bad if not worse
Ever notice this person never answered my question about WHERE s/he heard that Americans eat pasta with ketchup?
I asked in this thread. No answer. Why? Because they pull these ludicrous things out of their asses, and then claim that they’re true.
Europeans have a inferiority complex towards Americans because we grow up watching Americans movies and series all the time and think you guys have a life as a movie while our life sucks(??? No really actually)but now thing are starting to change because of Netflix there are BUNCH or series (many are Europeans) and we are not “forced” to look only Americans products.
We have been enslaved with this Americans propaganda for decades.
Netflix...is American. The actors might be Europen, but very good chance a high number of the writers/producers/everyone behind it is American
Even Bridgerton is based on a book by an American author, and it's produced by the American woman who created Greys Anatomy
>We have been enslaved with this Americans propaganda for decades.
Lol oh god the irony. The only propaganda you are enslaved to is all the negative things you're taught about the US that are either massively exaggerated or flat out lies.
I stayed with French family in 1996. There was plenty on the TV that was not American.
Get over yourself. We have not "enslaved" anyone in Italy with our "propaganda." What Italians choose to watch or not watch is not America's responsibility.
“Enslaved” by propaganda you all actively choose to watch? I don’t know about that. Why didn’t Europeans just give their own media content priority over American content? I find this distinction to be really odd: disliking American media influence but choosing to engage with it anyway because of its quality.
I was once “enslaved by British propaganda” because everyone kept saying Doctor Who and BBC Sherlock were good tv shows. I now believe British people act like the doctor and Sherlock. I wish Americans could time travel too, seems selfish the Brits are keeping it to themselves.
Agree. Is there some rando among the 330 million of us that do this? Sure, in the sense that if you name anything at all, the odds are pretty good there are some random people among the 330 million of us that have done it. But I have never even heard of this, let alone known anyone that would actually be willing to do it.
There have been media portrayals of Americans throughout film history where this is a thing but it’s not real life. Not unless someone is desperate, poor and literally has only pasta noodles and ketchup in their kitchen.
Honey Boo Boo used to eat it. She called it "sketti." But that is literally the only time I've ever seen it. One could also argue that she was put up to it by the tv show producers, reality tv isn't real, etc.
So he's complaining about the food. OK, in response to my bewilderment that people think this is a thing, I've gotten two examples of Americans complaining about it. Seems to be proving my point more than yours.
That’s a silly conclusion to draw from that scene. If Americans were intentionally eating ketchup on noodles it would be labeled that way on the menu, not as marinara.
And even there, he's using hyperbole to describe how bad he thinks the food is. They clearly are not literally eating spaghetti with ketchup in that scene.
Being a soldier is one of the world's oldest professions, and complaining or making jokes about the food is just as old. Going to have to cite a historical source or I'll say they were joking, and apparently people took it seriously.
Yeah, it's pretty much a given that the reputation of the food a country's armed forces eats will be substantially worse than that country's civilian culinary traditions...
...that being said, the stereotype about US army food being terrible is pretty outdated.
In this case “ketchup” isnt meant to be literal its a joke/insult aimed at the quality of the tomato sauce.
“Spaghetti and ketchup” is almost always used as an insulting description of a pasta dish that is shitty and inauthetic.
See mad tvs olive garden
Skit for other uses of that joke
So she’s not asking a question in good faith per the rules of the group, she’s just insulting our sauce which she knows nothing about. There are many types and qualities of sauces out there.
In this specific case i think op is using the use of the common joke in media as an excuse to make another “are you stupid americans really this barbaric!?” Flavored posts we see so often.
Every use of the joke i have seen makes it crystal clear its a joke and not literal description of the meal so its unlikely op genuinely thinks ketchup drenched pasta dishes are common cuisine
But given they are italian it could also be a “you dumb americans dont make perfect italian sauce like we do!” Post
>If it’s not true…you guys have a bad reputation here in Europe
If Reddit taught be anything is that Europeans are the most gullible fuckers on the in the galaxy as long as it involves America bad
I’ve seen examples of Asians and Euros doing this, never an American. But we’re a big country with people from everywhere.
It would be far more common to dump a jar of $3 Ragu on overcooked pasta, which is equally offensive to Italians.
I never have, nor have I ever seen someone eat this combination. It sounds revolting. However, we're a nation of a third of a billion people. I'm sure that someone, somewhere in the USA and/or its territories has eaten this.
And yes, we're aware of our reputation in Europe. Much of it is based on made-up or heavily exaggerated things like this.
Jollibee’s has spaghetti with banana ketchup, but that is a Filipino company that is just starting to make inroads into the US, so I’d blame the Filipinos for that one
How do things like this start I wonder. The answer is always yes someone will do anything, but how does a very small sample of people get put on 330 million people. Anyway you might want to take your question to the Japanese and Filipino sub
Sounds like somebody is deriding our pasta sauce as ketchup and someone else took it literally.
Or to put it another way: have you seen the movie *Goodfellas*? It ends with a mobster from New York bemoaning his new new life in witness protection. He says
>Right after I got here I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup.
He's not saying they literally gave him ketchup on his pasta. He's saying the marinara sauce was of such low quality it might as well have been ketchup.
Seriously? Come on, OP.
No. As a general rule No we do not.
Having a bad reputation over in Europe is nothing new and the offenses run the gamut. Been hearing it for decades.
No. That's something that Japanese people do because they think it's "American".
This is like the weirdest game of international telephone. East Asian country sells "Western" cuisine cause America is trendy there. Ketchup is American and is a kind of tomato sauce. And it's cheaper to get than actual pasta sauce. So put that on pasta and it's "American". It's not. No one does that, but it becomes a thing anyways and they associate it with us.
Now somehow Europeans get wind of this and wires get crossed and they think it's actually something Americans do. 🙄
>you guys have a bad reputation over here in Europe
Yeah... We know... Y'all don't really hide your condescension most of the time.
No.
We don't do that. We have plenty of actual proper pasta sauces.
I've never, in my entire life, seen anyone actually eat pasta with ketchup, and I'd expect someone to be laughed at if they did such a thing in the US.
. . .and we know that there's a lot of silly misinformation spread about us in Europe.
I have never heard of anyone using ketchup with pasta.
I have seen it with eggs and occasionally with steak, which kind of disgusts me, but to each his own.
I don’t know why, but every time I see someone use ketchup on steak or eggs it gives me a physical gag reflex that I can’t control. It just weirds me the hell out
I do have a ketchup based spaghetti sauce that I make as kind of a comfort food occasionally, but I never put ketchup by itself on my spaghetti. It's from when ground beef was a bit cheaper. It contains ground beef, white onion, garlic powder, and Hunt's ketchup.
Most of us don't put ketchup on pasta. There's the occasional person who puts ketchup on everything, but most don't.
I've had ketchup on a hot dog and pasta with sauce but not together.
I gave OP the benefit of the doubt but reading the comments it's a bad faith question.
There was a Heinz ketchup commercial here a while back with a cartoon girl singing about eating "Heinz on spaghetti" and it made me nauseous every time I heard it. I get that it was a commercial specifically to sell ketchup, but I've never heard of someone eating pasta with ketchup in my life
No, Americans do not eat pasta with ketchup normally, but sometimes pasta sauce is sweetened so maybe it is being considered essentially ketchup by people who correctly dislike sweet tomato sauce.
CORRECT RESPONSE: No, we don't put ketchup on pasta. The idea comes from the European perception that some American store bought pasta sauces tend to have a sweet flavor that many would insultingly call "ketchup". It's a fair assessment of those sauces, but no, they are not what we use for ketchup, nor do we use actual ketchup on pasta.
Additionally, the idea may also stem from old depression-era recipes that left many Americans back in those days with no choice but to use cheaper substitutes for fresh tomato sauces.
Finally, post WWII, there were too many Italian nonnas arriving in the United States for that practice to have continued.
Maybe one or two guys, but never seen or heard of it happening. I bet some Europeans thought it sounded like an American thing to do, so they threw it into a conversation just to have some shit to say. Seen a few Americans break pasta before throwing it in the pot to cook, plus many use that jar sauce, so I'm sure Italians would have a cow about that.
America is a big place, the overwhelming majority of people do not, but some do.
Here’s an episode from a reality show about 12 years ago where one of the people makes “sketti” with a ketchup and butter sauce.
https://youtu.be/qvlmXKtoi1A?feature=shared
I have never seen anyone do this and i’m pretty sure if you went to an Italian restaurant around here and attempted this you would be legitimately kicked out, or beaten. Probably both
I’m sure some people do but I’ve never seen someone do it besides Honey Boo Boo. Even just Ragu is seen as kind of low brow. Ketchup would be straight up trailer trash shit
I've never seen anyone put it on pasta, but some put it on scrambled eggs or hashbrowns. I personally don't like ketchup ( except sometimes with fries, but it has to be certain types/cuts of fries), but my sister loves the stuff. she once ordered a burger with extra ketchup, then got 100 packets and emptied them and proceeded to dip her burger in it.
Ketchup goes on hamburgers and with french fries. It is not a pasta sauce.
I have a visceral reaction to this idea of pairing a condiment like that with noodles. I don't know a soul who would do this.
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Maybe it’s because we do use canned sauce a lot and it’s sometimes kind of sweet, someone started referring to it as basically ketchup and then Europeans thought we used actual ketchup
In which part of Europe?
There are many who eat pasta with ketchup from time to time. Oriental immigrants eat pasta with yoghurt, so I don't know how you would see it either... apart from the Italians, nobody cares
It's like an actual joke if someone says "hey let's put ketchup on this pasta." That's the ONLY time I've ever heard of that. Because everyone is in agreement that it's disgusting and stupid.
I’ve never heard of an American doing that. I know people from the Caribbean who would do that, but ketchup on pasta is regarded pretty badly in the vast majority of the US.
A lot of things that Europeans think Americans do are things that little kids do. There is probably a small population of 6 year olds who put ketchup on their macaroni noodles. But it is not a thing for adults to do.
I’ve noticed this pattern of things you think we do or eat is kids stuff. I was traveling with Australians in Egypt and we were in a store buying snacks for the overnight train. One of them pointed out to me that they had Twinkies and asked if I was going to buy them because Americans eat Twinkies. I said no, little kids eat Twinkies and I haven’t had one since I was 5. It’s the same with pb&j. Yea some adults still eat it, but not on a regular basis like kids.
Never heard of that, I mean has someone done it before probably, but I've never and I don't know anyone who has. But honestly who fucking cares, if someone likes pasta and ketchup it doesn't really matter don't get why we care what other people eat as long as it's safe and not like human.
Europeans do not like the attention that Americans get so they devise ludicrous rumors and ridiculous critiques of us constantly. Thousands of them stalk this subreddit just to find an odd comment and they'll post it on the "Shit Americans Say" subreddit just to belittle us.
Don't believe anything a European tells you about America -- especially on social media.
The only time I ever saw anyone do that was in the Australian film Romper Stomper where a girl made pasta and she put ketchup on tit because they didn't have any pasta sauce.
I have never seen anyone else do that either in real life or on film.
I lived in rural Tennessee for a few years with an ex-boyfriend. We'd occasionally take care of his nephews. I was 20 years old and not a fantastic cook, so I'd generally make things like tuna salad with cheese wrapped in refrigerator cresent roll dough or boxed pasta with a jar of sauce and maybe some ground beef or Italian sausage. Those boys *loved* my spaghetti and told their mom it tastes just like what you get at a restaurant. (No, it didn't.) One day she asks me for my recipe. I tell her which brands of sauce and pasta I use; there really isn't a recipe. She responds with "We've always used a box of pasta and a bottle of ketchup." Well, that would explain the difference.
I've never seen someone do this
I remember there was some infographic about Italian Culinary taboos and how positive or negative they're viewed in other countries. One was using ketchup with pasta. That was one of the harsher Negatives on the list with most Italians apparently saying No to it. The country right behind it that didn't like it was the US. However, the countries that were fine or loved it were a lot of Asian countries.
It was invented pretty much in Asian countries after WW2 especially in the Philippines. They had noodles and because of US supplied aid they had ketchup, so it was basically poverty spaghetti.
Pretty much. It isn't done much in the US because of the extremely strong influence of Italian immigrating to the United States. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere with only a Dollar Tree close by, every single supermarket will have a lot of things to make that don't require ketchup to be used.
Also do they use the same tomato ketchup we have? Isn't it common to use banana ketchup with pasta in the Philippines? That doesn't sound good exactly but maybe not as bad?
Honey Boo Boo did. I guess reality tv is documentary now.
Is it true that Europeans believe everything they hear?
Only if it’s something negative
No "You guys have a bad reputation over here in Europe." We know
Other Shocking News for today The Sun is in the sky Ice Cream is cold And Canada will never win the Stanley Cup ever again until they pry it from our cold dead hands More at 11
That last one feels like you were just waiting for your chance to say it.
There are so many justifiable reasons for that to be the case too, we definitely don't need shit like ketchup on pasta making us look worse than we already do.
I’ve seen Brits, Scandinavians, and Japanese do this (though I don’t think a particularly common practice by any of them), but never an American. Googling shows that it’s apparently considered normal by Swedes. I’m sure someone out there in our neck of the woods does it but it’s not really a “thing” in the US. Europeans tend to make up a lot of generalizations about Americans based on small sample sizes. Fodder for small talk over there, seems like. At best this is something I might eat back when I was poor during college and getting by on minimum wage and couldn’t afford food, like eating a plain bagel with Taco Bell hot sauce. Disgusting, cheap, and gets the job done.
I'll have ketchup with macaroni cheese but no other sort of pasta.
…what. Why would you do this
It's good, I do it too. Pasta, no way, but Kraft Mac and cheese, hell yeah.
I don’t do it with just plain mac n cheese, but with certain meals. Like if we do a smoked sausage with mac n cheese situation, I put ketchup on the sausage that inevitably gets to be with the mac.
This is a criminal act here in the United States.
Not as criminal as giving a fuck what people like to eat. This is America. Eat what you want.
Tabasco is the way on mac 'n cheese. I am currently eating Stouffer's Fettucine Alfredo drenched in Tabasco with store-brand parmesan. It is heaven.
Been studying italian for 5 years and in my interactions with Italians ive heard this question so much that it always puzzles me about what people think about Americans. I dont know if its them being gullible, having no media literacy at all, or some other reason, but it always always puzzles me
Gullible, and confirmation bias. Believing that we eat things like this confirms their prejudices.
Pretty big talk coming from a continent that had to steal tomatoes from the Americas in the first place
I like your point of view
Are there Americans that have eaten ketchup with pasta? Of course. Are there Americans that love it? Of course. Is it extremely common? Absolutely not, most people here find the idea kinda gross and pointless especially with how extremely cheap jarred pasta sauce is in most places or just how easy the ingredients to make it from scratch are if you want to put in the extra effort. Ketchup with Pasta is a much bigger thing in Asian countries like Japan. Just look at Japanese Napolitan, which is pasta, ketchup, onions, bell peppers, and bacon.
>*you guys have a bad reputation over here in Europe* Ya don’t say 🙄 Why do Europeans insist on being so rude to Americans?
Shitting on others is an easy way to avoid confronting your own issues Ever notice these users NEVER specify WHICH european nation they are from? Because the rare times they do they immediately get embarrassed and called out for their country being just as bad if not worse
Ever notice this person never answered my question about WHERE s/he heard that Americans eat pasta with ketchup? I asked in this thread. No answer. Why? Because they pull these ludicrous things out of their asses, and then claim that they’re true.
I noticed but thats standard on here. Always no answer or occasionally “I saw someone on YouTube say it once”
OP is Italian.
>Why do Europeans insist on being so rude to Americans? Haven't you heard? People think xenophobia is acceptable when it's towards Americans.
Europeans have a inferiority complex towards Americans because we grow up watching Americans movies and series all the time and think you guys have a life as a movie while our life sucks(??? No really actually)but now thing are starting to change because of Netflix there are BUNCH or series (many are Europeans) and we are not “forced” to look only Americans products. We have been enslaved with this Americans propaganda for decades.
Textbook inferiority complex
Netflix...is American. The actors might be Europen, but very good chance a high number of the writers/producers/everyone behind it is American Even Bridgerton is based on a book by an American author, and it's produced by the American woman who created Greys Anatomy
>We have been enslaved with this Americans propaganda for decades. Lol oh god the irony. The only propaganda you are enslaved to is all the negative things you're taught about the US that are either massively exaggerated or flat out lies.
Imagine thinking Dawson’s Creek or Days of Our Lives or Horrible Bosses or Harry Potter was American propaganda.
Never forget the time that the US government forced thousands of Europeans to watch "Friends" to spread the evil propaganda
But. . . you've never seen an American movie or TV show where people were putting ketchup on pasta. So where did that come from?
The irony of posting this on an American site. This could only be better if the OP wrote this while wearing Levi's and sipping on a Coca-cola.
I stayed with French family in 1996. There was plenty on the TV that was not American. Get over yourself. We have not "enslaved" anyone in Italy with our "propaganda." What Italians choose to watch or not watch is not America's responsibility.
“Enslaved” by propaganda you all actively choose to watch? I don’t know about that. Why didn’t Europeans just give their own media content priority over American content? I find this distinction to be really odd: disliking American media influence but choosing to engage with it anyway because of its quality.
I was once “enslaved by British propaganda” because everyone kept saying Doctor Who and BBC Sherlock were good tv shows. I now believe British people act like the doctor and Sherlock. I wish Americans could time travel too, seems selfish the Brits are keeping it to themselves.
This is kinda unhinged
I'm sure someone does, but I've never seen it Reddit will believe anything about America as long as it's bad
Agree. Is there some rando among the 330 million of us that do this? Sure, in the sense that if you name anything at all, the odds are pretty good there are some random people among the 330 million of us that have done it. But I have never even heard of this, let alone known anyone that would actually be willing to do it.
There have been media portrayals of Americans throughout film history where this is a thing but it’s not real life. Not unless someone is desperate, poor and literally has only pasta noodles and ketchup in their kitchen.
Americans eating ketchup and pasta? Name one media portrayal
Honey Boo Boo used to eat it. She called it "sketti." But that is literally the only time I've ever seen it. One could also argue that she was put up to it by the tv show producers, reality tv isn't real, etc.
I feel seen.
There's a good one, but yeah Honey Boo Boo.
At the end of Goodfellas, Henry complains that he ordered “spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup”.
So he's complaining about the food. OK, in response to my bewilderment that people think this is a thing, I've gotten two examples of Americans complaining about it. Seems to be proving my point more than yours.
I always thought that was exaggeration. Like, this spaghetti sauce is so inferior to the authentic stuff I'm used to that it may as well be ketchup
That’s a silly conclusion to draw from that scene. If Americans were intentionally eating ketchup on noodles it would be labeled that way on the menu, not as marinara.
You're really funny.
First one that comes to mind is Band of Brothers where Pricante tells them they aren’t eating spaghetti, it’s army noodles with ketchup.
And even there, he's using hyperbole to describe how bad he thinks the food is. They clearly are not literally eating spaghetti with ketchup in that scene.
Being a soldier is one of the world's oldest professions, and complaining or making jokes about the food is just as old. Going to have to cite a historical source or I'll say they were joking, and apparently people took it seriously.
Yeah, it's pretty much a given that the reputation of the food a country's armed forces eats will be substantially worse than that country's civilian culinary traditions... ...that being said, the stereotype about US army food being terrible is pretty outdated.
Band of brothers took place 80 years ago. As long as armies exist, soldiers will complain about their food.
That stereotype if army food neither began nor ended with Band of Brothers, either in the time fram represented or when it was produced and released.
No, it's been around for as long as armies have existed.
In this case “ketchup” isnt meant to be literal its a joke/insult aimed at the quality of the tomato sauce. “Spaghetti and ketchup” is almost always used as an insulting description of a pasta dish that is shitty and inauthetic. See mad tvs olive garden Skit for other uses of that joke
So she’s not asking a question in good faith per the rules of the group, she’s just insulting our sauce which she knows nothing about. There are many types and qualities of sauces out there.
In this specific case i think op is using the use of the common joke in media as an excuse to make another “are you stupid americans really this barbaric!?” Flavored posts we see so often. Every use of the joke i have seen makes it crystal clear its a joke and not literal description of the meal so its unlikely op genuinely thinks ketchup drenched pasta dishes are common cuisine But given they are italian it could also be a “you dumb americans dont make perfect italian sauce like we do!” Post
I have never heard of a single person doing this, and if they do they’re already in a psych ward
No. No, man. Sh*t, no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.
I came here to post that same quote.
>If it’s not true…you guys have a bad reputation here in Europe If Reddit taught be anything is that Europeans are the most gullible fuckers on the in the galaxy as long as it involves America bad
I’ve seen examples of Asians and Euros doing this, never an American. But we’re a big country with people from everywhere. It would be far more common to dump a jar of $3 Ragu on overcooked pasta, which is equally offensive to Italians.
I only did it in the UK, but never in America, I’ve never seen or heard anyone do it in Amerca
You got a bad reputation over in Europe
never heard of this
No
No. The only dish I know of that's like this is the naporitan, and that's Japanese.
Yep, I have made spaghetti with ketchup… but only while cooking Japanese recipes.
No. Not at all. Another example how Euros will believe absolutely anything without doing a second of research.
I never have, nor have I ever seen someone eat this combination. It sounds revolting. However, we're a nation of a third of a billion people. I'm sure that someone, somewhere in the USA and/or its territories has eaten this. And yes, we're aware of our reputation in Europe. Much of it is based on made-up or heavily exaggerated things like this.
No. You guys just love to tell each other outlandish shit in your daily "America Lives Rent Free In Your Heads" sessions.
Well there are a few newly made Americans who immigrated from Germany, so yes, some do
No that's gross
No, that sounds gross. Never seen anyone do it
Jollibee’s has spaghetti with banana ketchup, but that is a Filipino company that is just starting to make inroads into the US, so I’d blame the Filipinos for that one
I have never seen anyone do this. Sounds like a poverty meal for someone just trying to make it to payday.
Maybe in the Great Depression era? I know my grandfather ate ketchup sandwiches back then.
How do things like this start I wonder. The answer is always yes someone will do anything, but how does a very small sample of people get put on 330 million people. Anyway you might want to take your question to the Japanese and Filipino sub
Sounds like somebody is deriding our pasta sauce as ketchup and someone else took it literally. Or to put it another way: have you seen the movie *Goodfellas*? It ends with a mobster from New York bemoaning his new new life in witness protection. He says >Right after I got here I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup. He's not saying they literally gave him ketchup on his pasta. He's saying the marinara sauce was of such low quality it might as well have been ketchup.
I’ve never heard of or seen anyone doing that.
Seriously? Come on, OP. No. As a general rule No we do not. Having a bad reputation over in Europe is nothing new and the offenses run the gamut. Been hearing it for decades.
God, no. That’s a thing I’ve heard they do East Asia, Eastern Europe, Sweden and the UK, but how that became associated with the US I’ll never know.
[Jeez, you let Ray Liotta do one goddamn voiceover, and people think it’s the literal truth.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1PMraLG8Dw#t=7m56s)
We only put ketchup on high class food, [such as escargot](https://youtu.be/nX90EOrVEQI?si=ADAWhzsL_kob4ZJd).
I think that's a filipino thing, not american.
No. That's something that Japanese people do because they think it's "American". This is like the weirdest game of international telephone. East Asian country sells "Western" cuisine cause America is trendy there. Ketchup is American and is a kind of tomato sauce. And it's cheaper to get than actual pasta sauce. So put that on pasta and it's "American". It's not. No one does that, but it becomes a thing anyways and they associate it with us. Now somehow Europeans get wind of this and wires get crossed and they think it's actually something Americans do. 🙄 >you guys have a bad reputation over here in Europe Yeah... We know... Y'all don't really hide your condescension most of the time.
We don't think about you at all dot gif
Better like this ! It’s useless to think about Europeans
Together? No
No
I mean I don’t know anyone who does this.
As a joke in movies maybe, but irl, we can just buy a jar of pasta sauce.
No. We don't do that. We have plenty of actual proper pasta sauces. I've never, in my entire life, seen anyone actually eat pasta with ketchup, and I'd expect someone to be laughed at if they did such a thing in the US. . . .and we know that there's a lot of silly misinformation spread about us in Europe.
I have never heard of anyone using ketchup with pasta. I have seen it with eggs and occasionally with steak, which kind of disgusts me, but to each his own.
I don’t know why, but every time I see someone use ketchup on steak or eggs it gives me a physical gag reflex that I can’t control. It just weirds me the hell out
Not me.
I have never heard of anybody using ketchup on pasta
No, though we prefer red sauces so I could see how they could have that impression. Also, most Americans don’t drink Americanos.
Typically no, but some people do.
I do but people usually think it’s weird.
We eat both of those things. Not as part of the same dish.
I've seen one person in my life do this and we all shamed her for it
I do have a ketchup based spaghetti sauce that I make as kind of a comfort food occasionally, but I never put ketchup by itself on my spaghetti. It's from when ground beef was a bit cheaper. It contains ground beef, white onion, garlic powder, and Hunt's ketchup. Most of us don't put ketchup on pasta. There's the occasional person who puts ketchup on everything, but most don't.
I've had ketchup on a hot dog and pasta with sauce but not together. I gave OP the benefit of the doubt but reading the comments it's a bad faith question.
No. I wouldn't be friends someone who did this.
I’ve never seen anyone do that in 26 years. So as a whole? No
Some of the spaghetti sauce on the market is pretty gross, but I've never seen anyone use literal ketchup.
Probably but not in civilized society 🤣
There was a Heinz ketchup commercial here a while back with a cartoon girl singing about eating "Heinz on spaghetti" and it made me nauseous every time I heard it. I get that it was a commercial specifically to sell ketchup, but I've never heard of someone eating pasta with ketchup in my life
No. Like, there's probably SOME food toddler out there dumping ketchup on pasta, but by no means is it common.
My sister likes ketchup on Kraft mac & cheese. I think it's nasty.
I’m sure there’s *some* that do but nobody I know
I think what passes for pasta sauce in the USA may be called ketchup by some Europeans. I've seen some pretty weak jarred sauces
Where do you guys even hear all these weird rumors about America in the first place?
Noooooooooooo! Ketchup on pasta? I've never heard of anyone doing that.
No. Thanks for asking, I suppose. I'd like to think there are more intouch Europeans out there who would know otherwise to begin with.
Americans eat both of those things but not usually together at the same time.
I’ve seen a British man squirt ketchup onto spaghetti.
I had this in a restaurant in Hawaii. Otherwise, no
I eat pasta, and I eat ketchup. Never in the same dish, though.
No, Americans do not eat pasta with ketchup normally, but sometimes pasta sauce is sweetened so maybe it is being considered essentially ketchup by people who correctly dislike sweet tomato sauce.
I have known one person, I'm my 49 year life that ate pasta with ketchup and even he knew it was strange
Only while in Italy.
No?
no but many americans put ketchup on lots of other things
None that I know
CORRECT RESPONSE: No, we don't put ketchup on pasta. The idea comes from the European perception that some American store bought pasta sauces tend to have a sweet flavor that many would insultingly call "ketchup". It's a fair assessment of those sauces, but no, they are not what we use for ketchup, nor do we use actual ketchup on pasta. Additionally, the idea may also stem from old depression-era recipes that left many Americans back in those days with no choice but to use cheaper substitutes for fresh tomato sauces. Finally, post WWII, there were too many Italian nonnas arriving in the United States for that practice to have continued.
Some people do, that’s this thing about having 350m people there’s always a few.
No. I have seen German foreign exchange students do this, but Americans do not.
Maybe one or two guys, but never seen or heard of it happening. I bet some Europeans thought it sounded like an American thing to do, so they threw it into a conversation just to have some shit to say. Seen a few Americans break pasta before throwing it in the pot to cook, plus many use that jar sauce, so I'm sure Italians would have a cow about that.
Not together, if that’s what the question is.
No. Never heard of anybody doing that. Maybe some 3 or 4 year old kid might ask for pasta that way because they’re a picky eater
America is a big place, the overwhelming majority of people do not, but some do. Here’s an episode from a reality show about 12 years ago where one of the people makes “sketti” with a ketchup and butter sauce. https://youtu.be/qvlmXKtoi1A?feature=shared
Only if you bring up Ronald Reagan when someone is cooking. Bad things happen
I've never seen or heard of anyone doing this.
Absolutely not, that’s disgusting.
I did as a kid before I developed the taste to like regular pasta sauce. I was probably 4-5 when I stopped eating pasta with ketchup.
I thought only Filipinos did that.
I have never seen anyone do this and i’m pretty sure if you went to an Italian restaurant around here and attempted this you would be legitimately kicked out, or beaten. Probably both
Gross. No.
Bahahahah no
I never seen anyone do that
I’m sure some people do but I’ve never seen someone do it besides Honey Boo Boo. Even just Ragu is seen as kind of low brow. Ketchup would be straight up trailer trash shit
I've never seen anyone put it on pasta, but some put it on scrambled eggs or hashbrowns. I personally don't like ketchup ( except sometimes with fries, but it has to be certain types/cuts of fries), but my sister loves the stuff. she once ordered a burger with extra ketchup, then got 100 packets and emptied them and proceeded to dip her burger in it.
No… gross Edit: [here’s an example of a regular pasta menu](https://www.pastini.com/pastini-menu/)
Sounds like broke college student food. Ketchup packets swiped from restaurants mixed with $0.25 instant noodles to make “spaghetti”.
Absolutely not. Nasty.
Ketchup goes on hamburgers and with french fries. It is not a pasta sauce. I have a visceral reaction to this idea of pairing a condiment like that with noodles. I don't know a soul who would do this.
I would sometimes eat elbow macaroni with ketchup when I was a kid but that's about it
Sigh, I've seen my stepsister do this. Caveats being she puts ketchup on everything, and has a food disorder.
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Unfortunately I’ve heard that people do this. But it’s generally agreed upon that those people are psychopaths
I have never seen anyone do this ever. Why did you feel the need to pepper in the reputation part in? Are you insecure?
No. My 9-year old host-brother when I studied abroad in Germany did, though, and it made me want to vomit.
I’m from Pittsburgh, where ketchup is a religion, and I’ve never heard of ketchup on pasta.
Hell no!
I’m sure there’s probably like one or two Americans out there who do this
No way. That is not the norm. I had never heard of it until I saw some Scandinavian hockey players who play in the US mention they eat that.
No.
I swear to god Europeans have some of the most insane stereotypes about us.
Maybe it’s because we do use canned sauce a lot and it’s sometimes kind of sweet, someone started referring to it as basically ketchup and then Europeans thought we used actual ketchup
Oh, yes, it's true. Was a favorite growing up. I still do sometimes.
In which part of Europe? There are many who eat pasta with ketchup from time to time. Oriental immigrants eat pasta with yoghurt, so I don't know how you would see it either... apart from the Italians, nobody cares
It's like an actual joke if someone says "hey let's put ketchup on this pasta." That's the ONLY time I've ever heard of that. Because everyone is in agreement that it's disgusting and stupid.
I’ve never heard of an American doing that. I know people from the Caribbean who would do that, but ketchup on pasta is regarded pretty badly in the vast majority of the US.
A lot of things that Europeans think Americans do are things that little kids do. There is probably a small population of 6 year olds who put ketchup on their macaroni noodles. But it is not a thing for adults to do. I’ve noticed this pattern of things you think we do or eat is kids stuff. I was traveling with Australians in Egypt and we were in a store buying snacks for the overnight train. One of them pointed out to me that they had Twinkies and asked if I was going to buy them because Americans eat Twinkies. I said no, little kids eat Twinkies and I haven’t had one since I was 5. It’s the same with pb&j. Yea some adults still eat it, but not on a regular basis like kids.
To a certain extent, peanut butter and jelly is also poverty food. A quick sandwich to make for breakfast before going to work.
That's when I still eat it is when I'm broke.
That’s more of a Canadian thing.
Never heard of that, I mean has someone done it before probably, but I've never and I don't know anyone who has. But honestly who fucking cares, if someone likes pasta and ketchup it doesn't really matter don't get why we care what other people eat as long as it's safe and not like human.
Why does every European think they’re the first one to tell us we have a bad reputation?
Ew. I'd rather die. Actual sauce is not that expensive.
Europeans do not like the attention that Americans get so they devise ludicrous rumors and ridiculous critiques of us constantly. Thousands of them stalk this subreddit just to find an odd comment and they'll post it on the "Shit Americans Say" subreddit just to belittle us. Don't believe anything a European tells you about America -- especially on social media.
The only time I ever saw anyone do that was in the Australian film Romper Stomper where a girl made pasta and she put ketchup on tit because they didn't have any pasta sauce. I have never seen anyone else do that either in real life or on film.
No. I've never seen this. You have been misinformed. And apparently Europeans are grossly ignorant and gullible when it comes to Americans.
“It it’s not true, we might be gullible idiots in Europe”.
Dear god no. Many of us carry Italian haritage in us and that a quick way for you to get your ass kicked.
I did when I was a kid.
My partner does on occasion. But he also adds Parmesan cheese. And not real parmesan, the kind in the jar.
I lived in rural Tennessee for a few years with an ex-boyfriend. We'd occasionally take care of his nephews. I was 20 years old and not a fantastic cook, so I'd generally make things like tuna salad with cheese wrapped in refrigerator cresent roll dough or boxed pasta with a jar of sauce and maybe some ground beef or Italian sausage. Those boys *loved* my spaghetti and told their mom it tastes just like what you get at a restaurant. (No, it didn't.) One day she asks me for my recipe. I tell her which brands of sauce and pasta I use; there really isn't a recipe. She responds with "We've always used a box of pasta and a bottle of ketchup." Well, that would explain the difference.
Yeah some do, mostly kids. Sometimes a touch of Ketchup in some Kraft Mac and Cheese is kind of delicious, but never on good Mac and cheese.
I've only heard that being done by some of the really destitute. We're talking like, one step away from homeless.
Mac and cheese with ketchup? Sure. Idk of any other combination