Minnesota Mix Macaroni Hotdish
A quick, delicious midweek baked pasta dish based on your home-canned Minnesota Mix tomatoes.
Ingredients
- 1 half-litre jar home-canned ground beef (1 US pint)
- 1 half-litre jar Minnesota mix (1 US pint)
- 125 g macaroni (uncooked. 1 cup / 4 oz uncooked)
- 50 g cheddar cheese (light. Or regular. 2 oz / ½ cup after grating)
Instructions
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Spray a covered casserole dish with cooking spray, set aside.
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Grate cheese, set aside.
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Drain the jar of ground meat, put in a good-sized saucepan.
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Add the Minnesota mixture to the saucepan, put on stove, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
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Meanwhile, cook the macaroni according to package directions, drain.
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Start heating oven to 180 C (350 F).
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Add macaroni to beef and tomato mixture, stir, and turn piping hot into casserole dish.
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Sprinkle cheese over top.
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Put cover on.
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Bake in oven for 30 minutes.
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Remove cover, cook for a final 5 minutes to brown cheese.
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Serve piping hot.
Recipe Notes
Use a casserole dish (with a cover) that's at least two litres (2 quarts) in capacity.
Instead of the home canned ground beef, you can take 500 g (1 lb) of ground beef, and brown it.
For the cheese you can use any semi-firm cheese such as cheddar, colby, Swiss, Monteray, Leicester, etc.
The purpose of simmering the meat and tomato mixture for 10 minutes is to thicken the sauce a bit.
To cook the macaroni, follow the package directions, or boil it for about 8 minutes. Don't over cook: you want it tender but not soft. To cook the macaroni in a pressure cooker: put macaroni in, cover only just with water, pressure cook on high (10 lbs) for 4 minutes, let cool down naturally, drain immediately when pressure is gone.
TIP! Freeze the beef broth off the ground beef for soup stock!