Week 6 - Johnny Marzetti

Johnny Marzetti

Recipe 6 of 52 in 2022  

Meat/Fish Entree #2

    This recipe comes to us from Favorite Recipes From Southern Kitchens - Casseroles - Including Breads. Published in 1968, it is the same cookbook which the recipe for the Meltaway Casserole from Week 4 is in. I'd seen variations of this recipe in other cookbooks and this cookbook has multiple versions. The version I based my recipe on was submitted by Mrs. Walter Steward of Perryville, Tennessee.  I was intrigued by the name of the dish. Where did it come from? Well, I finally did the research. Italian immigrant, Teresa Marzetti (Teresa) opened the first of her Italian restaurants in Columbus, Ohio.  Before Teresa opened her first restaurant, she was quoted as saying "We will start a new place and serve good food. At a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but we will serve good food." I absolutely love that statement. This tells me a couple of things about Teresa. 1) She cared about the quality of her food and 2) It sounds like she cared about her community, because she wanted to still cook good food for them, even if her restaurant was not profitable. 

    One of the dishes Teresa served at her restaurants, was a creation of hers which she named after her brother-in-law, Johnny Marzetti. The ingredients in this casserole dish include, ground beef, tomato sauce, noodles and cheese. It has been said that nobody knows when Teresa first offered the dish at her restaurant, but the dish had become popular across Ohio and the Midwest, by the 1920s. 

    I really liked this dish and would definitely make it again. There is no seasoning besides salt and pepper in this version and it uses tomato soup, not tomato sauce, which is fine if you are someone who just doesn't care for much seasonings. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I grew up eating mostly plainly flavored food, because that's what my mom liked. I happen to be more like my dad, who liked to experiment with food (for the most part).  Anyhow, I'll show my changes in italics. 

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped (I used a medium/large onion; if you like a lot, use more, or less if you don't)

1/2 cup celery, chopped (I sliced mine)

1 lb. ground beef (or turkey, like I used, because I forgot to thaw the hamburger meat)

1/2 package medium noodles, cooked (I used macacroni, which were perfectly; I had no idea what size package this recipe was talking about, so to determine how much macaroni to use, I looked at a similar recipe on the same page, which said 4 oz egg noodles; I decided on a cup of macaroni noodles, which was a little more than 5 oz and it was the perfect amount)

1 can tomato soup (Tomato Soup is bland!!!! See seasoning, below)

Salt & Pepper, to taste (I used two teaspoons of Italian Sofrito Seasoning; I'd possible either add more next time, or use regular Italian Seasoning)

Grated cheese (I didn't really measure, but I used about 1 cup Monterrey Jack cheese; I like cheese, but you really can use less or more, to your preference)

Red Pepper Chili Flakes (optional)

Oil/Cooking Spray

Directions: Chop onion and slice (or chop) celery and start cooking in a large skillet (heated), to which you've added a bit of oil. I didn't measure, but I guess it was a couple of teaspoons or so. The main thing, is that you don't want your onion and celery to stick. Add in your ground meat, cooking until it is no longer pink. As you're browning the meat, you want to break up chunks, while you are stirring it together with the celery and onion. The original recipe says to alternate layers of the macaroni and the meat mixture and soup and then to top with the grated cheese. However, I mixed the soup into the meat mixture and made layers of the macaroni and the now flavored meat mixture into a classic 1 1/2 quart Pyrex casserole dish (It was the perfect size for this casserole). The last step is to sprinkle your cheese over top and bake for 30 minutes, in your oven, pre-heated to 350 degrees, Fahrenheit. I sprinkled my serving with red chili pepper flakes. I'd say in today's standards, this makes 4 servings.

Johnny Marzetti 

Johnny Marzetti, as the casserole looked when I removed it from the oven.

Photo Credit is unknown. This is a picture I found of one of the Marzetti Restaurants.