Skillet Macaroni is one of the dishes that my mother cooked on rotation when I was growing up, but I haven’t made it until now, even though I loved it. It crossed my mind from time to time, but I never asked for the recipe because it seems so simple. Simple, yes, but what made it special – why did I love it?
When we visited my parents earlier this year, my mom decided to go through her recipe box with me (remember those?). We found her hand-written recipe for skillet macaroni. I was delighted! And I was surprised to learn that the dry macaroni is added to the skillet and sauteed with the onions and peppers. What? Was that what made so good? Like toasting the rice when making risotto?
In reading my mother’s recipe (below), I was also confused by the “2 cups of uncooked macaroni.” Did she really measure out 2 dry cups of pasta? Don’t we measure pasta in ounces? So I Googled skillet macaroni, and I learned that in the forties this dish was a household mainstay (Ron’s mother called it goulash). The recipes I found were consistent my mother’s version, almost word-for-word. She did indeed measure out 2 cups of dry pasta. Some people commented on the recipes that the pasta became mushy for them, so I opted for Tinkyada brown rice pasta which is notably difficult to overcook.
Mid-May is foraging season for us, and we just discovered a few patches of ramps in our pollinator path. I had read about ramps, but I had never experienced them. Well, I can now attest that they’re wonderfully pungent yet subtle. So why not add ramps to Skillet Macaroni?
Then I added the Worcestershire sauce at the end, as called for in the recipe(s). They had Worcestershire sauce in the forties? I Googled that, and I learn that Worcestershire sauce was invented by the pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century. Lea and Perrins!
There’s a lot of history in this dish. And it did taste just like I remembered it. Even better with the addition of the ramps and a bit of Parmesan.
Skillet Macaroni (with ramps)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 8 ounces uncooked pasta (see note below)
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
- 1 bunch ramps
- 1 14.5 ounce can of Muir Glen diced tomatoes (fire roasted)
- 1 cup water
- 1 t salt
- 1/4 t pepper
- 1 T Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Prepare the ramps – Cut the stems from the greens of the ramps and chop. Give the greens of the ramps a rough chop as well.
- Brown the ground beef – Brown the green beef. Remove from skillet with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Sauté the macaroni and the veg – Sauté the macaroni, the onion, the green pepper, and the ramp stems until the veg is soft.
- Assemble and simmer – Return the meat to the skillet, add the tomato sauce, ramp greens, water, salt and pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
Notes
Love the history you add.