Jollibee
Jollibee Chickenjoy Gravy Copycat Recipe
A dark roux gravy with soy and more black pepper than seems reasonable. Fifteen minutes.
How to Make Jollibee Jolly Spaghetti at Home
Filipino Sweet Spaghetti, and the Banana Ketchup That Makes It
The sweet spaghetti Filipino children grow up on, made properly and cheaply.
AI-generated illustration created for food.fast. It is not photographic evidence of a prepared batch.
Filipino spaghetti surprises people who meet it for the first time, because it is unapologetically sweet. Not faintly sweet like an American pasta sauce - sweet. Sugar, banana ketchup, hot dog slices and a heavy blanket of grated cheese.
It is not a bad Italian spaghetti. It is a different dish from a different tradition, and it is one of the great cheap family meals - four generous portions for under three pounds.
The one ingredient that matters is banana ketchup, a Filipino store cupboard staple invented during the Second World War when tomatoes were scarce. It is made from mashed banana, vinegar, sugar and spices, dyed red, and it tastes like nothing else. It is in every Asian supermarket and online, and it costs about two pounds for a bottle that will last you six of these.
How this page shows its working
The method gives quantities, timings and observable cues rather than asking you to guess. The 4 cases in If it goes wrong explain likely causes and corrective action.
See the recipe verification standard · See how the cost is calculated
Banana ketchup, and the substitute that gets you most of the way
Banana ketchup was created in the Philippines in the 1940s by food technologist Maria Orosa, using mashed banana in place of tomato, which was in short supply. It is sweeter than tomato ketchup, more aromatic, with a faint fruitiness and a sharper vinegar note.
It is genuinely central to how this dish tastes. A version made without it is sweet spaghetti; a version with it is Filipino spaghetti.
If you cannot find it, the closest substitute is:
- 4 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp mashed very ripe banana
- 1 tsp cider vinegar
- 1 tsp caster sugar
blended together, in place of every 4 tbsp of banana ketchup. It is surprisingly close and the page says plainly that it is a substitute rather than pretending otherwise.
What you should not do is simply use more tomato ketchup. You will get sweetness without the aromatic fruit note, and the dish will taste like a mistake rather than like a cuisine.
How to make it, step by step
Make it
-
Brown the hot dog slices first and set them aside
A tablespoon of oil, medium-high heat, two minutes until the cut faces are caramelised. This is a small step that adds a lot.
About 3 min -
Brown the mince hard, then the onion and garlic
Break the mince up fine and let it properly brown. Then the onion for six minutes and the garlic for one.
About 12 min -
Everything else in, then simmer for fifteen minutes
Passata, banana ketchup, purée, sugar, stock and seasoning. Gentle simmer, uncovered, until it has thickened to a sauce that coats a spoon.
About 15 min -
Hot dogs back in for the last three minutes
Late, so they keep their texture rather than going soft.
About 3 min -
Cook the spaghetti, then combine in the pan
Drain it a minute early, keeping a cup of the water, and finish it in the sauce for a minute with a splash of that water. Never sauce on top of plain pasta.
About 10 min -
Serve with much more cheese than feels correct
A very generous handful per bowl. In the Philippines the cheese is not optional and it is not a garnish.
About 1 min
Why finishing the pasta in the sauce matters
Draining spaghetti and putting sauce on top gives you two separate things on a plate. Finishing it in the pan gives you one dish.
The mechanism is starch. Pasta water is full of released starch, and when you add a splash of it to a sauce with hot pasta in it and agitate, the starch emulsifies the fat and water in the sauce into something that clings to every strand.
Drain the pasta a minute before it is done, tip it into the sauce with about 60 ml of the water, and stir vigorously over a medium heat for a minute. You will see the sauce change - it goes from loose to glossy and starts coating rather than pooling.
This is true of every pasta dish and it is the single most useful pasta technique there is.
What four portions cost against buying four
| Component | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Pork mince | 400 g | £1.60 |
| Spaghetti | 400 g | £0.35 |
| Hot dogs | 4 | £0.40 |
| Passata, banana ketchup, cheese | - | £0.50 |
| Four portions at home | £2.85 | |
| Four Jolly Spaghetti, UK price | £15.80 |
Ways to change it once you have made it once
With Filipino-style sausage
Sliced longganisa instead of hot dogs, browned the same way. More authentic and considerably better.
Meat free
Plant mince and vegetarian frankfurters. The sauce carries it entirely.
Less sweet
Drop the brown sugar to 1 tbsp and use half banana ketchup, half passata. A halfway house for anyone meeting this for the first time.
What went wrong, and how to fix it
Each entry names a likely cause as well as a correction, so the advice remains useful when equipment, ingredients or batch size differ.
It tastes like sweetened bolognese
- Why it happened
- No banana ketchup.
- What to do
- Banana ketchup or the four-ingredient substitute. Extra tomato ketchup alone does not get there.
Too sweet even for this
- Why it happened
- Sweet banana ketchups vary a lot.
- What to do
- Drop the brown sugar to a tablespoon and add a teaspoon of cider vinegar.
The sauce is thin
- Why it happened
- Not simmered long enough.
- What to do
- Fifteen minutes uncovered. It should coat a spoon.
The sauce sat on top of the pasta
- Why it happened
- The pasta was not finished in the pan.
- What to do
- Drain a minute early and finish it in the sauce with a splash of pasta water.
Questions people actually ask about this recipe
Why is Filipino spaghetti sweet?
It is a distinct national dish rather than a variation on an Italian one. Banana ketchup, sugar and hot dogs are all deliberate.
What is banana ketchup?
A Filipino condiment made from mashed banana, vinegar, sugar and spices, dyed red. Invented in the 1940s when tomatoes were scarce.
Can I use ordinary ketchup?
Not alone. Blend 4 tbsp ketchup with 1 tbsp mashed ripe banana, 1 tsp vinegar and 1 tsp sugar as a substitute.
How much cheese goes on top?
More than you think. It is a component, not a garnish.
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