Where I Went: Pizza House; 89 Howe St.

What I Ate: Spaghetti & Sauce

What It Set Me Back: $4.50

Commons has closed and you have a hankering for the pasta bar. Don’t fret, because, as almost all Yale students can tell you, New Haven abounds with cheap takes on simple Italian-American comfort food. Almost every pizza place in town cranks out basic pastas alongside the usual repertoire of pies, grinders and garlic breads, and when the exquisite tastes of Wooster Street are out of reach to an insomniac Yalie with a light wallet, numerous options abound.

But where is the cheapest of all these choices? In my trek to the Pizza House this week I believe I may have found the answer. For a mere $4.50, a visitor to the 45-year-old Howe Street institution can come away with a heaping aluminum tin of spaghetti with marinara, with an eight-inch roll of garlic bread to boot.

Certainly the pasta isn’t grand, but it is more than exceptional for the price and quantity offered. And although my Italian ancestors might bang me over the head with a cannoli for saying this, sometimes a massive bowl of clumpy noodles and simple red sauce is all that the stomach craves. Give me some bread to sop it up with, and I’m more than ready to face the night.

The Pizza House is open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and until 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.