Ida's Depression Goulash
In the late 1990s, my husband and I always ordered this for lunch once a month on a Saturday at Idas, a great locally owned tavern in downtown Fort Myers, FL. This recipe is my best attempt yet to reproduce Idas yummy comfort food Even better served with crusty breadrolls or garlic bread.
In the late 1990s, my husband and I always ordered this for lunch once a month on a Saturday at Idas, a great locally owned tavern in downtown Fort Myers, FL. This recipe is my best attempt yet to reproduce Idas yummy comfort food Even better served with crusty breadrolls or garlic bread.
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon garlic minced
- 1 lb ground beef 80/20 or 93/7 lean
- 1 small or medium onion chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes from dried hot peppers; do not leave this ingredient out!
- 1 teaspoon chili powder optional (if you want more 'heat')
- 1 green pepper (optional); small; chopped
- 1 can tomato soup condensed (do not add water as directed on the can)
- 1 14.5-oz can stewed tomatoes original or flavored; chop tomatoes
- 1 can mushroom stems and pieces small can; chop if desired
- 1 14.5-oz can cut green beans optional but highly recommended
- 1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni noodles small or large elbows; cooked, rinsed, and drained
- shredded cheese cheddar, parmesan, or mozzarella
- Carbohydrate 84.8110134595914 g
- Cholesterol 84.6707029 mg
- Fat 21.0321698222028 g
- Fiber 7.72960412044567 g
- Protein 40.2827745212849 g
- Saturated Fat 8.04440381432014 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (620g)
- Sodium 827.529693275273 mg
- Sugar 77.0814093391457 g
- Trans Fat 4.03003046565274 g
- Calories 685 calories
Step-by-step
- TO MAKE THE SAUCE: In a large skillet, brown the Ground Beef with the onions, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder, and green pepper. DO NOT DRAIN unless the pan juices are VERY greasy. (If you use 80/20 or 93/7 ground beef as directed above, the pan juices should look mostly watery and will add good flavor.) Add the tomato soup, stewed tomatoes, water, mushrooms, and green beans. Stir thoroughly. Cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes. NOTE: Sauce should be more liquid-y than how it appears in the recipe photo.
- 15 MINUTES BEFORE SERVING: Cook the elbow macaroni in a medium pot of boiling, salted water, until tender (approximately 5 minutes for small macaroni; approximately 11 minutes for larger macaroni). Drain, rinse with hot water, and drain thoroughly.
- TO SERVE: Spoon the desired serving amount of macaroni in a bowl. Cover the macaroni with desired amount of sauce. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Enjoy!
- P.S. Some people recommend adding a can of corn. We like corn but I don't include it in this recipe because the macaroni is enough starch.
Standard cookware choices will ruin this dish before the sauce even simmers. Home cooks frequently deploy nonstick skillets for ground meat, yet achieving proper Maillard browning requires a heavy-bottomed cast iron pan or enameled Dutch oven that retains high heat.
- Use a 12-inch or larger heavy skillet to prevent overcrowding, which causes the beef and onions to steam rather than brown properly.
- Retain the rendered pan fats instead of draining them; abandoning this liquid strips out essential binding agents needed for the condensed tomato soup base.
- Simmer the sauce covered on low heat for exactly 20 minutes, stirring at five-minute intervals to prevent the thick tomato solids from scorching on the bottom of the vessel.
- Boil the elbow macaroni in salted water until just tender, utilizing a 5-minute window for small pasta or up to 11 minutes for larger varieties, then rinse with hot water to wash away excess surface starches that make the final bowl gummy.
Chemical reactions during the 20-minute simmer fuse the glutamates in the canned mushrooms and stewed tomatoes with the proteins of the beef. Keeping the heat low prevents the sugars in the condensed soup from burning while the starches from the pasta absorb the surplus liquid.
