American Chop Suey (as in, what is that?)

Sundays are usually reserved for my special cooking ambitions. Those feats of culinary excellence that cannot be accomplished in under an hour. It's my last hurrah for the weekend before getting back to the daily grind and weeknight dinners I can finish before I starve to death. However, this past Sunday, I was feeling lazy, therefore feeling the need for something quick and easy, and broke, therefore looking for a recipe that I could get some mileage out of. Having most of the ingredients on hand, I settled on American Chop Suey.

What is American Chop Suey, you ask? Well, depending on who you ask, you'll get a different response. It is typically made with ground beef, some kind of noodle,green peppers, and tomatoes, but from there, you can pretty much do what you want. I've seen egg noodles and macaroni, soy sauce (although I use Worcestershire Sauce), tomatoes, no tomatoes, and even brown sugar.

Where did it get it's name? Well, according to Wikipedia, American Chop Suey is a regional (ie, New England) name for Macaroni and Beef. It's called chop suey because it's a mix of beef and vegetables (although in my opinion, counting onions and peppers as vegetables is pushing it, but more on that later). It's one of those recipes with a million different variations, but I prefer to stick with simplicity and taste.


American Chop Suey

Ingredients:

1 TBSP olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1b lean ground beef (turkey would also be great here)
1 can whole peeled tomatoes*
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

*You won't use all of the canned tomatoes in this recipe. You can save them in an airtight container for another use. For example, they make an excellent topping on pizza instead of sauce.

- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil
- Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.
- Saute the onions, green pepper, and celery until they begin to soften, about 4 minutes.
- Add in garlic, and continue to saute for 1 minute more.
- Add ground beef to vegetables, breaking up into pieces. Cook until meat is brown and vegetables are soft.
- drain juice from canned tomatoes into beef mixture. Break up 5 or 6 tomatoes into mixture using your fingers.
- Stir in Worcestershire Sauce, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste. Allow to simmer on the stovetop.
- Add macaroni to the pot of boiling water and cook until almost done. It will continue to cook in the oven.
- Drain pasta and combine with beef sauce mixture.
- Spread evenly into a large baking dish and top with Mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 15 minutes, until cheese is melted.
- Let sit for 5 minutes, then serve.

This is great with a salad, especially since you'd be lucky to get a single serving of vegetables out of this dish. It also keeps very well and makes an excellent lunch for those of us trying to save a little money!