Green spaghetti

Green spaghetti, also called espaghetti verde or espagueti verde, is a pasta, poblano chili, and crema dish in Mexican cuisine and the cuisine of Texas's Rio Grande Valley.

Green spaghetti garnished with cotija cheese

Description, ingredients, and preparation

Priya Krishna, writing in The New York Times, likened the dish to "fettuccine Alfredo with a huge, verdant personality".^[1]

The dish consists of spaghetti served in a roasted poblano cream sauce. The sauce is typically made from roasted poblanos and onions pureed in a blender with crema. Additional ingredients may include parsley, cilantro, and garlic. Chopped herbs and crumbled cotija are commonly used for garnish.^[2][3][4][5]

Serving and cultural relevance

It is considered a celebration dish and is commonly served at weddings, parties, holidays, birthdays, baptisms, and other events both in Mexico and in Texas's Rio Grande Valley.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Popularity

It is little known outside of Mexico and Texas's Rio Grande Valley.^{[2][3][4][5][7]} According to Texas Monthly's taco editor Jose Ralat, writing about Barbs B Q's version in 2022, the dish previously had "never migrated to restaurants".^[6] In 2022 Ralat wrote that the restaurant's version "might be the single best dish I ate all year".^[6] Eater called it a "Rio Grande Valley classic".^[8]