Ground Beef Casserole with Elbow Pasta

This comforting casserole features elbow pasta, ground beef and a cheese cracker topping for crunch.

A creamy sauce and macaroni will wrap you in a warm hug while crunchy cheese crackers deliver big smiles.

Casseroles get a bad wrap and I want to lead the charge to correct this. Let everybody else back a political candidate; I’m getting behind my favorite casserole, and I think this might be this one.

When you hear “casserole,” what comes to mind? Church potluck spreads with ingredients slathered in a variety of sauce. Vegetables swimming in cheese and cream, so much so that you can’t distinguish what vegetable you’re eating. (By the way, I think that may have been the point in the 1950s and ‘60s.)

But casseroles have been around for longer than you might think. Going to everybody’s favorite online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, the word casserole is from the French diminutive casse that describes a large, deep pan used for oven cooking. Somewhere in the 1870s, the casserole as we know it came to be, and while you might turn your nose up at any American casserole dish, would you do the same for a French cassoulet or Greek moussaka? I thought not.

By the 1970s, casseroles seemed to have lived our their usefulness. If you want more history, check out this article.

Should you instead want a recipe that the whole family will like (what kid won’t eat macaroni for crying out loud?) while also stretching a modest amount of ground beef, as Reba McEntire once said, “have I got a deal for you.”

This casserole was a staple in my Mom’s dinner arsenal. We were a family of four and we always had leftovers from this; it tastes better the next day for lunch. It’s a bit like the Johnny Marzetti baked Italian pasta dish that’s said to have originated in Columbus, Ohio near the turn of the century, but it’s the crunch of the Cheese-It® snack crackers that make this dish pop.

And let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Canned cream soups. I looked up nutritional info on Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup (what Mom always used in this recipe).

In 1/2 cup, there are 100 calories, and each can is 2.5 servings.

The 98-percent fat-free choice of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup has 60 calories per serving and slightly lower in the sodium department, too. Should you want to make your own, that’s certainly an option, (check out this recipe) but know that it’s about the same calories as the fat-free canned soup. This casserole will not suffer if you choose to go the fat-free route on soup.

Another more healthy swap for this dish is whole wheat macaroni. For the topping, use reduced-fat cheese crackers or another option are cauliflower cheddar crackers

; these are quite tasty.

My point: Comforting casseroles are great ways to stretch meat in a dish, while vegetable casseroles make tasty choices for Meatless Monday. For a supper that’s quick, budget-friendly, and so very satisfying, bake up a casserole this week.

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Ground Beef Casserole with Elbow Pasta

Ingredients:

1½ pounds ground beef (85 percent lean)

½ cup diced celery

1 medium onion, diced

1 can (10.5-ounce) cream of mushroom soup

1 can (6 ounce) tomato paste

1 ½ cups dry elbow pasta

1 can water

1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup (approximately) crushed Cheez-It® snack crackers or enough to cover top of casserole

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a 6-quart pot about ¾ full with water. Salt well and bring to a boil. Cook pasta al dente (about 8 minutes).

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, brown ground beef, celery and onion. In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, add the cream of mushroom soup and tomato paste. Rinse out the soup can with water and add to bowl, stirring mixture well.

3. When beef is browned and vegetables are softened, add the mixture and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Drain the pasta and fold into beef mixture in skillet.

4. Transfer the beef mixture into an 8x10 baking pan (you can also use a round casserole dish). Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven and top with shredded cheese and crushed cheese crackers. Return to oven and bake another 15 minutes. You’re looking for bubbly sauce, melted cheese, and slightly golden topping.

Yield: 6 servings

German Pork Schnitzel with Sauerkraut

In less than an hour, you can make this hearty supper brimming with Old World flavor.

Many years ago, my mom and I took a day trip from St. Louis to Hermann, Missouri. Just 90 minutes west of the city, Hermann is noted for its wineries and German history.

Mom and I were browsing through one of the many shops in this quaint small town when she came across a T-shirt and said with a laugh, “I have to get this for your Dad.” It was a simple white knit shirt with blocked black letters that read: You can always tell a German, but you can’t tell him much.”

I don’t remember Dad as being a particularly stubborn man; although he was pretty adamant about me not keeping the kitten I tried to smuggle into the house when I was 15 years old. But Mom thought the shirt apropos, so we brought it home to Dad, who wore the garment for many years.

Our family was aware of our German heritage (my DNA is a mixture of mostly German and a tiny bit of Welsh from Dad’s side with Austrian/Hungarian from Mom’s people), but it’s not like we flew the German flag along with the Stars and Stripes on the front lawn. He owned no albums of polka music (thank goodness). But we connected to our ancestors through food, and for special meals—like Dad’s birthday—a German menu would be offered.

I think our DNA is somehow wired into the portion of our brain that controls comfort food cravings. An article in Medical News Today suggests that memory and emotions play a definite role in our food cravings.

I was fortunate to visit Germany during my time as a travel writer and editor and remember feeling a sense of familiarity in the country, despite my obvious language barrier. Maybe that’s why in September leading up to Oct. 3, (my Dad’s birthday), I start to get a taste for some German comfort food, like Schnitzel.

In America, Schnitzel is closely associated with Wienerschnitzel, but it’s not the same thing. Wiernerschnitzel is a geographically protected term in Germany and Austria and can only be made with veal. The traditional German pork schnitzel is usually served with a wedge of lemon and a sprig of parsley, but variations can include different sauces (such as the dill cream sauce in my recipe).

The term schnitzel refers to the thin cut of meat (sniz or slice), which is usually tenderized, breaded and fried. Dozens of countries have a similar version of schnitzel, including the Southern U.S. staple of chicken-fried steak.

German schnitzel is wonderful with a side of buttered noodles, warm German potato salad

or tangy sauerkraut. It’s one of the quicker German dishes to prepare; you could have this to the table in about half an hour for a satisfying weeknight supper. Mahlzeit!

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Pork Schnitzel with Sauerkraut

Ingredients (schnitzel):

2 4-ounce cubed pork cutlets

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 ¼ tablespoons Panko bread crumbs

1 ½ teaspoons seasoned salt

2 ½ tablespoons of reserved bacon fat for frying; or use vegetable oil if you don’t have the bacon fat

Cooking spray

Ingredients (for sauerkraut):

2-pound bag of sauerkraut

½ sliced red onion (or use yellow if you don’t have red; just nice to have the pink color in dish)

1 teaspoon caraway seed

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon bacon fat to cook onion in (or use unsalted butter)

Ingredients for dill sauce:

(It’s perfectly fine to serve the schnitzel with traditional lemon and parsley. However this is the basic white sauce with added dill and tang of apple cider vinegar)

1 tablespoon each butter and flour

1 ¼ cups warm milk

1 teaspoon fresh dill (use a bit less if using dry herb)

½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Mix together 3 tablespoons flour, the Panko bread crumbs and seasoning salt. Spring each pork cutlet with salt and pepper and spray both sides lightly with cooking spray. Dredge cutlets in flour/bread crumb mixture.

2. In a large skillet, melt 2 ½ tablespoons of bacon fat (or add the oil) over medium heat. When pan is hot, add breaded cutlets. Brown four minutes on each side, remove pork from skillet and set aside. Take skillet off heat for now.

3. Slice onion. In a 6-quart stock pan, melt ½ teaspoon bacon fat over medium heat. Add onion and cook until translucent (you don’t want to brown these).

4. Add the sauerkraut, caraway seed and brown sugar. Bring pot of kraut to a hard simmer (near boiling) and then turn down to low heat, cover and gently simmer for about 20-25 minutes.

5. Put the skillet back on the stove, wipe out any browned bits from the schnitzel. Pour the milk into a small sauce pan and gently warm just until you see tiny bubbles start to form on the side. Turn off heat.

6. Turn the heat to medium under the skillet, add butter until it melts. Whisk in the flour a cook for about a 45 to 60 seconds, just so the raw flour taste is removed. Slowly add the warm milk and keep whisking to keep sauce smooth. Incorporate all the milk and then add dill, salt and pepper. When sauce is thickened, turn off heat and whisk in the vinegar. Set aside until ready to plate. YIELD: Two servings with extra kraut for another day!

Creamed Chipped Beef

What comes to mind when you hear or see the words “comfort food?”

Dictionary.com has a pretty straightforward definition:

Comfort food is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone, and may be characterized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple preparation.

Well, that’s about as bland as raw eggplant.

Here’s my definition for comparison: Comfort food is any edible item or dish that connects your taste buds to memories of people or places that you love. It’s food that triggers a smile.

Carbs and calories be damned. We’re not eating these foods three times day. Many of us don’t eat like this three times a month. Perhaps now more than ever, reaching back into our cupboard of memories and digging out a favorite recipe from the family cookbook is absolutely in order. In case you need more permission, let me list a couple of reasons you should embrace a meatloaf without any shame.

• We’re facing a global pandemic. It’s been in all the newspapers. A lot of us have COVID fatigue.

• Home and the kitchen table should be the place that provides healing and solace.

Food costs have risen. Our moms and grannies knew how to squeeze the last drop out of a food budget. Mine surely did, and we can find a lot of wisdom in their old recipes.

• Time around the table should also be story hour. With so many families still more or less sheltered together, what better way to remember Grandma than over a bowl of her beef stew?

Speaking of Grandma, I remember a dinner from the early 1980s. My Bubba had made a family favorite, baked beef stew. But this night, it was exceptionally tasty. Even Dad commented. “Mom,” he said, “this is really very good.” Bubba thanked him, saying she was out of cooking sherry so she used some of his 12-year-old Scotch.

A cook can’t miss with fine ingredients.

But a comforting dish doesn’t always need fine Scotch and sirloin to be special. My mother’s favorite comfort food was this very weird concoction called — and I’ll spell it phonetically — “chewyspice,” which was essentially a turnip, potato, and bacon fat mash. Don’t bother with a Google search because you’ll get a cookie recipe.

Chewyspice was a staple in the Brolaski household because they didn’t have much to eat. Making a pot of turnips and potatoes reminded Mom of her childhood.

A childhood food memory for me involves a humble plate of grub you may remember from the comic strip Beetle Bailey: Cookie’s creamed chipped beef or, as soldiers like my Dad used to call it, “sh*t on a shingle.” I’m sure while serving in the Korean War, Dad had his share of this stuff, but somehow, he seemed to enjoy it when it was served at our table.

For me, creamed chipped beef was a Saturday dinner special, to be followed by either family game night or watching TV sitcoms like Petticoat Junction and Here Come the Brides (boy, did I have a huge crush on Bobby Sherman). Root beer floats often would follow my bath and then bedtime by 10 p.m.

Bobby might have been a cutie, but creamed chipped beef isn’t much to look at. However, it was filling and cheap! Check this out: You have most of the ingredients in your refrigerator and pantry right now. In my area, Instacart lists a two-ounce package of Buddig brand chipped beef at about 80 cents. So, for under $4 (not including tax), you have dinner for four people!

And who isn’t instantly comforted by Béchamel sauce? I could bathe in its velvety luxuriousness. But instead, I’ll drown my cheap chipped beef in it and find reruns of The Partridge Family on Hulu.

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Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups warm milk

8 ounces packaged dried beef

(substitution ¾ pound browned, drained ground beef)

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

8 slices toast (sourdough is nice)

1 pinch paprika for garnish before serving

Method:

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the milk just so tiny bubbles start to form on the side; be careful not to scorch.

2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Whisk in flour to form a roux. Slowly whisk in the warmed milk and once it’s incorporated, increase heat to medium. Stir until thickened.

3. Pop bread in toaster

4. Cut the beef into strips and fold into white sauce. Stir in garlic powder and pepper.

Spoon over bread and add a pinch of paprika to each serving

YIELD: 4 servings