In our melting pot called America, comfort food can mean so many different things to so many different people. No matter what ‘the’ dish happens to be, we seek solice not just through our stomachs but the feelings that the dish evokes…our sense of taste and smell trigger memories that warm our souls bringing us back to times of less distress. For some it can be a bowl of chicken soup – bringing back memories of being nurtured when one wasn’t feeling so well. Or of foods that bring back memories of happy times – family gathered together for big platters of meatloaf and mashed potatoes or maybe even naan and curry! There are people out there though, like me, where the list of comfort foods can be as long and varied as the thickest cookbook. Food was so emeshed in my everyday living as I was growing up that just about anything that ever passed my lips brings back fond memories and feelings of comfort. Being Chinese American I can draw on tomato beef chow mein or a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs…tiny dim sum sized custard tarts or banana cream pie…minced squab in lettuce cups or carnitas tacos…rice porridge with thousand year old eggs or matzo ball soup. MMMMMmmmm, isn’t America Great!?
I was writing a menu today and was called upon to offer comfort foods…so we had the roast chicken, the meatloaf, the mashed potatoes, the beef stew, the enchilada casserole, and then I hit a mind block. Argh, what else? I already had a side of pasta with cheese sauce so didn’t want to do mac and cheese…then it hit me…Tomato Mac and Cheese. I loved that dish as a kid…I remember standing on the stool at the stove over the pot browning the ground beef, adding the ketchup and slices of american cheese; then tossing in the elbow macaroni…what’s not to love?
These days I have a hard time using ketchup as a main ingredient in a sauce let alone plastic wrapped american slices so we upscaled a bit with grass fed ground beef, organic tomato sauce, medium tillamook cheddar, and an imported macaroni. I was kind of skeptical with my substitutes, thinking I would not be able to bring back those comfort feelings not just because I was too tall now to stand on that stool over the stove but I didn’t stay true to the original ingredients. I’m happy to report that after digging into the finished product, I did indeed get those warm fuzzy feelings of comfort. Here’s the recipe:
2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 onion, diced
1 lb ground beef
2 cups grated cheddar
1/2 cup grated cheddar
Preheat oven to 350F. Cook the elbow macaroni until slightly less than al dente.
In a medium skillet, brown onions in a bit of oil. Add beef and brown. Add tomato sauce. Heat to a boil. Add 2 cups grated cheddar and stir until melted. Take off heat. Mix in macaroni and pour into a buttered 2 quart casserole. Sprinkle the 1/2 c grated cheddar on top. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.
