1y ago

Macaroni (aka (American) Goulash) - My comfort food.

This isn't fancy but it's my comfort food. My family has been making this and calling it macaroni since before I was born. It's a super simple recipe that I cook mostly in the winter. Across the Midwest US this is known as (American) Goulash.

I start with 1 Kg (2 lb) ground beef, a large onion, 600 g (4 cups) of macaroni elbows (or other unit pasta), two 798 ml (27 oz?) cans of crushed or diced tomatoes, dry basil, dry oregano, garlic powder, salt, and the secret ingredient, ketchup.

I dice up the onion, heat up a deep frying pan, add a bunch of butter (30 ml, 2 T), and toss in the onions frying them until they start to caramelize. Then I add in the ground beef and fry it until there is no more visible red and I think it's mostly cooked. Next I add in all of the diced/crushed tomatoes, a palm full (seriously, that's how I do it...maybe between 15 ml and 30 ml (1T and 2T) each of dry basil and dry oregano, around 5 ml (1 t) of garlic powder, and around 10 ml (2 t) of salt. Finally, I add a good squirt of ketchup (maybe...250 ml, 1 c). I stir it up, bring it to a simmer, and turn the heat down to hold the simmer.

Next, I boil the elbows until they are al dente. When the elbows are ready I drain them and shake the colander to get rid of as much water as possible then dump the elbows into the sauce and mix. From there it goes straight into bowls.

Between you and me, I think it's actually better the next day fried in a frying pan with butter but that's just me...and my father...and my son.

40 comments

Curious. In Australia we would use spaghetti and call it spaghetti bolognaise (our national dish). I thought goulash was a type of stew?
- You’re not wrong, traditional Hungarian goulash is indeed a slow simmered beef stew, but it has (imo) a pretty interesting story!
  Throughout the Middle Ages, goulash migrated around, integrating itself into the flavors and tastes of lots of other old world cultures, like Albania and even Ethiopia, who still have their own version of goulash too which also resembles a type of stew.
  In the mid-too-late-19th century many Hungarians migrated to The United States, so in keeping tradition, goulash integrated itself into the tastes and flavors of American culture, and thus what we see above was born. Even different regions within the states have their own version. In the Midwest (states like Minnesota, the Dakotas, Michigan) it can resemble more of a casserole, whereas the southern states, it could include chicken and rice.
  What connects them all is really that it’s a comfort food, made in a single pot, and best eaten with family!
  
  Gulyás is not a stew! You are thinking of pörkölt, that's what most other nations call "goulash". Gulyás is a soup.
- I used to add peas, corn and chopped carrot to this to get my kids to eat their veggies.
  Shred some Colby + Parmesan over the top.
  I still make it this way even though they're adults now, it's just the family bolognese. 🤷.
  
  spaghetti bolognese with peas is super underrated IMO

it has nothing common with goulash. just call it american.

thanks for including the recipe.
my dad has made a version of this since before i was born (45 years). he prefers the shell macaroni, but any will do. and rather than ketchup, his secret ingredient is a coupla cans of mushroom soup.
calls it "cowboy surprise" (also goulash), and i agree that it hits the comfort button.

TIL that Goulash is Beefaroni.
- Only in the midwest. If you call this Goulash to a Hungarian person their heads would explode.

A staple in my house growing up, we literally called it "shit" and it included kidney beans.

Admittedly, I've never made it myself but I've always heard that paprika was a staple in goulash? Either way, looks tasty!
- OP's recipe is an American goulash. What you're thinking of is likely a Czech goulash.
  
  I wasn't aware of the US version - they sound quite different but both nice in their own way!

My mom had a similar recipe that I still make to this day. She called it poor man's bolognese (it sounds better in Estonian) . Basically it was just ground beef, tomatoes, macaroni and seasoning. You added ketchup after cooking though. It's a really quick and simple meal when you have like half the ingredients for bolognese or the cheese is 7 euros like it is now.
- Sounds very similar to Johnny Marzetti, an Ohio-area dish.

Bro, that's a tasty meal right there!
- We love it. It really is better fried in butter in a pan the next day. I like it just a little crispy around the edges.
  
  🥺 me wants

When I was growing up, my Mom made this a lot, and she called it 'chop suey'. That's also what my grandmother called it before her.
- Same here, American chop suey. I think ours had celery.

That looks amazing. My mom made something similar when I was a kid.
- Back when I was a kid this was a cheap meal. My family was not flush with money so this was a regular meal. I came to love it and have passed that love on to my son. I expect that he will pass it on to his son when the time comes. It's funny that the simplest of meals can become such a comfort food.

Looks great! Here we skip all the fancy fresh ingredients, just elbow macaroni, ground beef, onions and drown it in ketchup. And we call it "junkie stew".
- Yes. This is quick and dirty comfort food. I do all of the prep including filling a pot with water. As soon as I start cooking the onions I turn the water on. I can generally have the sauce ready to dump into the noodles by the time the noodles are done cooking. It's better if you let the sauce simmer for a while but you can slam it together in 15 minutes once you have the prep done.

Thats just beef macaroni my dude. Calling it goulash without paprika is probably a gonna be a food crime to many.
- My family has always called it macaroni. A coworker from Michigan told me that they call it goulash so I started calling it goulash as a joke. I've updated the title of this post (Lemmy is awesome in that regard) a couple of times to incorlorate feedback from the community.
  American Goulash
- My family calls is macaroni. An American coworker pointed out that the call out goulash so I started calling it that as a joke.
  American Goulash

Goulash is such an unappetizing word, that being said, I love it and was raised on the stuff.
- If you think “goulash” is bad, try calling it slumgullion!

I cook the same dish with small variations (i change herbs and spices from time to time and sometimes add crushed tomatoes instead of ketchup) pretty often too. Quick and tasty. That's hardly a goulash though.
- Not a real goulash but they call it goulash in Michigan and other places. My family has always just called it macaroni. I started calling it goulash as a joke when one of my coworkers told me it was goulash.
  Do you pan fry it in butter the next day?

TIL goulash is essentially Beefaroni. I’d always heard of goulash but never knew what it was. Gonna need to stock up on supplies for a lazy cooking day :)
- This is American Goulash which is very different from Hungarian Goulash. American goulash is just macaroni with tomato sauce and hamburger. I love it.

Heresy. Why did you put pasta in it?

40 comments