Week 24: Talerine Beef Casserole

Wow. I guess I've been writing this blog for about six months now. Crazy. Some days, it feels like I just started. Other times, I feel like I've been on break for way too long. I'm pretty anxious to start vet school, but for now, I'm trying to enjoy the last of my free time. And what better way to do so than to cook? This week's recipe is another gem from "Simply Recipes." If you visit the website today, the newest recipe is for Brownie in a Mug. I love mug recipes, by the way. So, if that's your thing, too, you might wanna check it out!

Anyway, this casserole is strongly reminiscent of goulash, a tomato-y, noodle-y casserole dish that my grandmother has made for years. It's very, very simple but very, very good.

The name derives from "tagliarini," which is a kind of wide, flat, long Italian pasta. But this version calls for egg noodles.

The link to the original recipe is http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/talerine_beef_casserole/.

The following ingredients and directions have been copied almost verbatim from the website, and all credit goes to Ms. Elise Bauer.

Ingredients (for about six to eight people):
"12 ounce bag egg noodles
1 medium white onion, peeled and chopped
1 bell pepper, seeded, ribs removed, chopped fine
3 minced clove of garlic
Grapeseed oil or olive oil for sautéing
1 1/2 pounds ground round beef [I grabbed chuck without thinking--20% fat/80% lean--but it worked fine.]
Salt [and pepper, preferably of freshly ground black variety]
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced [I doubled that amount, which was great because I love mushrooms.]
1 28-ounce can tomatoes [It's your choice whether you want them whole, diced, etc. I opted for diced so I didn't have to do any chopping or tearing. There's enough of that in the recipe already without adding tomatoes to the list.]
1 1/2 cups frozen corn (can use canned corn or creamed corn) [This is optional; we left it out because my mom can't eat it, and the result was still delicious.]
1 15-ounce can of black olives, strained and chopped
1 pound cheddar cheese, grated [Yeah. You read that right. You know it's good when you get to use a whole pound of cheddar cheese.]

Method

1 Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and bring a large pot of. . .water to a boil for the egg noodles.

2 Heat 2 Tbsp of oil on medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Add the onions and bell pepper and sauté until softened. Add garlic and cook for a minute more. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with your fingers or a knife, if you are using whole canned tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to warm.

3 In a separate skillet, heat to medium-high. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to the pan and brown the meat, working in batches. Break up about half of the ground beef into the pan. Do not stir, but let sit and cook for a minute or two until brown. Sprinkle a little salt over the meat while cooking. Once brown on one side, stir the meat a little to get the other sides browned. Once the meat is thoroughly browned, use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the pan and put it in with the tomatoes, onions, and peppers. Brown the second batch of ground beef the same way.

4 Using the same pan that you had used for browning the beef, sauté the mushrooms in the remaining oil and beef drippings. Once browned, add the mushrooms to the beef and tomato mixture. [At this point, you can season with the ground black pepper.]

5 While the mushrooms are cooking, add the egg noodle pasta to the boiling water. Cook as directed, about 4-5 minutes [or just follow the directions on the packaging]. Strain when cooked, but still a little firm (al dente).

6 Add egg noodles, corn [if using], chopped olives, and about two thirds of the cheese to the large pot of beef and tomato mixture. Gently mix in.


7 Transfer mixture to a large casserole dish, or to two casserole dishes if you don't have one that is large enough. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of casserole(s). Place in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes (can go as long as an hour)."

Notes: I didn't even bother transferring the mix to a separate casserole dish. It's not really necessary, and it just dirties another container. If you have a big enough pan, that can go right in the oven. This recipe takes about two hours, a large chunk of which is just prep and cooking, but it's still pretty tedious, so it's not a good meal for a busy weekday.

My family really, really enjoyed this dish. Especially my dad. He gushed about it for quite some time. I think it reminded him of his mother's basic-but-delicious cooking. None of us really thought it would be necessary to change anything next time. Mom thought we could try adding cumin or some other spice to it, but then it might taste more like a taco casserole, which sort of isn't the point. This is a straightforward, down-home American meal, and it should stay that way. We served it with some garlic bread pull-apart bread from Target (I love that stuff and that store...) as well as some steamed broccoli, both of which were apt and pleasing accompaniments.

While this meal didn't really challenge me too much (except by straining my right arm from so much shredding and chopping), it was a good test of my mettle as a chef because I cooked this while sick with a cold. Don't worry! I made sure to wash my hands frequently! On a warm summer evening, though, it is very trying to have to stand in front of three burners and stir things, as well as put in a lot of physical effort to lift, grate, slice, etc. This goes double because I was feeling rundown and headache-y. But I think the end result was wonderful, so it really paid off. I'm glad I can still make good food even when I don't feel 100% myself.

Overall, this is a dish that I will definitely make again, but I think it's best suited to a chilly winter night when the stove top will be a welcome antidote to freezing temperatures. It definitely belongs in the Comfort Food category, and I think that's the best thing about it--no fussy ingredients, but it leads to happy hearts.

It doesn't look like much, but looks can be deceiving. (After all, we aren't supposed to judge books by their covers, are we? Yet book publishers seem to want us to do just that. But that's a whole 'nother issue.) Image enhanced with Instagram filtering.

In other news, our garden is coming along nicely. No tomatoes yet, but I have picked six white cucumbers, which are very cute and tasty. I have a couple of zucchini almost ready to pick, as well as a yellow crook-necked squash that is coming in. All very exciting stuff that is making me feel as though the hard work I've put in so far is finally paying off! Also, we pick up our fourth farm share tomorrow. Unfortunately, as we are leaving for vacation tomorrow, too, I won't be able to tell you what's in it until the week after we get back. Yes, sadly, I will be taking a week-long break from blogging to spend some time lakeside reading my eyes out. I know that makes me sound like a glutton for punishment, but I really can't think of anything better right now. I need it so much after a stressful summer of work, volunteering, shadowing, cooking, and preparing for school. So, stay fresh while I'm gone, and happy eating in the meantime!