Many home chefs (pointing a finger right at myself here) get bogged down with complicated recipes. But a delicious meal doesn’t have to be difficult.

Here’s my recipe for Spaghetti alla Riccardo — but there’s a twist:

1) Buy spaghetti. Any brand will do, I haven’t found a bad one yet. I don’t want to endorse any specific products here but Garofalo, the kind they sell at Costco, is delicious and shares a name with Janine Garofalo, a comedienne who’s given me her fair share of laughs.

2) Buy sauce. Ideally on the same trip to the store as (1). Again, I can’t recommend specific products due to the Splettnet code of ethics, but Ragu has been around for a long time for a reason. Prego is also delicious. If you’re already at Costco, well: Kirkland may not be the most Italian name, but I’ll be surprised if you find yourself disappointed.

3) Boil water. Simple, just put water in a pot. Not too much, don’t want it to boil over. Trust your gut.

4) Add spaghetti to sauce. Your spaghetti package will say how long to cook it for. You can trust them, they’re on your team.

5) Put something else in the sauce. Wasn’t expecting that, were you? Here’s where it gets interesting. If you put a chopped up zucchini into the sauce, well then you’ve made Spaghetti alla Riccardo. But if you put anything else? Anything you like? Then guess what? You’ve made Spaghetti alla You. An onion? Garlic? An apple? Sounds crazy, but it’s your dinner.

6) Heat up the sauce. I usually do this in my pan.

7) Strain spaghetti. This is the most fun part, in my opinion.

8) Put sauce on the spaghetti. Not too much. Remember: the number one way to spoil spaghetti is too much sauce. On the other hand the number two way is not enough sauce.

9) Enjoy.