Living Up to My Expectations: The Perfect Hamburger Macaroni

Hamburger macaroni was one of the first recipes I searched for when I got into food blogging. It isn't a dish I grew up eating, but I always thought it looked so good. But despite my best efforts and several bookmarks, I never made any of the recipes I found. Why? Because I knew what I was looking for and it was clear that none of the recipes I found had it.


Based on the recipes I found, I realized that my take on Hamburger Macaroni might not be exactly the traditional. But I wanted it the way I always THOUGHT it would, or should, taste like. Flavorful, a little cheesy, a little spicy, and hearty. So I took the best of the recipes I had found to use as a guide and put together this: The Perfect Hamburger Macaroni.

The Perfect Hamburger Macaroni

4 servings

1 Tablespoon oil

½ cup Diced Onion (about half a medium onion)

3 cloves garlic

14.5 ounce can roasted tomatoes

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon italian seasoning mix

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper

dash of paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

¾ cup Shredded Sharp Cheddar (+ ½ cup for topping, if desired)

1 lb. Ground Beef or equivalent Vegetarian Crumbles

1 lb. Small Pasta (like elbow macaroni, medium shells, or anything else of similar size)

If using ground beef, brown in a large skillet. Drain and set aside.

Cook pasta according to the package directions and set aside.

Heat oil in the skillet.

Add onion and cook until soft.

Add garlic and cook about 1 minute, until fragrant.

Add roasted tomatoes and tomato paste to pan. Stir to blend paste into tomato liquid.

Add italian seasoning, crushed red pepper, paprika, and salt and pepper if desired. Stir to combine.

Mix cooked ground beef or vegetarian crumbles into tomatoes.

Cook until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.

Mix in shredded cheese. Once cheese melts into the sauce combine with cooked pasta.

If desired, top with another ½ cup shredded cheese and transfer to oven just until cheese melts.

For more great pastas check out this weeks Presto Pasta Nights- I'll post the link as soon as the dished are posted.

For the Winos: Fresh Blackberry Pie with a Wine Glaze

Have you noticed how amazingly good the berries are this year? I think it must be all the rain the west coast has gotten.  


Whatever the reason, the raspberries and blackberries have been better then I can remember for years. And cheap too!


This pie is simply delicious. I made it twice in one week for my co-workers and they adored it. I gave out the recipe to several people, and it couldn't be much easier to make.


So make this pie, and make it soon, while the berries are still this good.

Wine Glazed Blackberry Pie

(adapted from this recipe I found on Tasty Kitchen)

Baked 9" Pie Shell*

6 - 6oz. packages of Blackberries (about 6 cups)

1/2 cup Water

1/2 cup Red Wine (I used Merlot. I think a Zinfandel would also be nice. Use whatever you drink.)

1/2 cup Sugar

3 tablespoons Cornstarch

*The recipe posted on tasty kitchen includes a recipe for a ginger pie shell. I used my standard pie crust recipe, the ginger just didn't sound appealing enough to me to change things up. But if it interests you, give it a try.

Pre-Bake your 9" pie shell: 

I currently do this by lining a 9" pie plate with rolled our crust. Line with aluminum foil, then fill completely with beans or pie weights. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. 

Then I remove the foil and weights and poke holes in the bottom with a fork. 

Continue baking, poking more holes if any parts start to puff up. Bake until the inside is golden brown and the shell is completely baked.

For the Wine Glaze:

In a medium sauce pan mix together sugar and cornstarch.  Add water and wine, stir to combine with dry ingredients.

Add 1 cup of blackberries.  

Heat over medium heat until thick and boiling.

In a lege bowl stir blackberries and glaze until fruit is evenly coated.

Fill pie shell with mixture and refrigerate until cooled and set, usually 4 hours is sufficient but I generally chill overnight.

UPDATE: This pie and some very tasty looking others can be found on the Summer Fruit themed July pie round-up by You Want Pies With That?

For When Life Gets Busy: A Simple, Delicious Vegetable Pasta

I love dishes that are able to deliver a lot of flavor with just a few simple ingredients.

It's especially important to have a few of these favorites around when life gets busy, and February was an especially busy month for me.

Here's a quick and simple pasta I threw together. A local food columnist I read religiously suggested flavoring simply with garlic and crushed red pepper. I wanted a more balanced dish so thought it would be good to add some vegetables, zucchini and grape tomatoes are two of my favorites and I almost always have them on hand.

Next time I think I will try it with a bit of lemon juice too.

Simply Delicious Vegetable Pasta

4-6 cloves garlic, depending on the size

2 tsp crushed red pepper

2 zucchini, cut into halved thin slices

2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half

1 lb strand pasta (like spaghetti or capellini)

2 tbsp olive oil

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large sauté pan, allow it to get warm but not too hot

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta and cook according to package directions, reserving a cup of pasta water when it is finished.

When oil is warm add garlic to the oil and cook just until flavor, and scent, is released. Be careful not to burn it!

Add zucchini and toss to coat with oil. Cook until it softens and begins to turn translucent.

Add tomatoes. Cook just a couple minutes until they warm thru and begin to soften. Add 2 tsp of crushed red pepper and toss with vegetables.

Add 1 Tbsp of water to pan to deglaze if necessary. Pour cooked vegetables over cooked pasta, being sure to get any oil left behind and all the bits of garlic and crushed red pepper.

Drizzle remaining Tbsp of oil over pasta and toss gently with tongs to combine. If pasta is too dry add more of the reserved pasta water.

I recommend serving topped with parmesan cheese.

I will also be posting this recipe (as I plan to do with all my pasta recipes) on this week's Presto Pasta Nights. For the 3^rd anniversary of the pasta round-up it will be hosted by it's creator at Once Upon a Feast. So look for it and a bunch of other delicious pastas this Fri.

Not Quite Stew: Italian Stew-erole AND My Very 1st Food Blogging Event

I have been meaning to make this recipe for awhile now, and I finally got around to it last week. Luckily I was just in time, because one of my favorite food blogs, Closet Cooking, is hosting a pasta event Presto Pasta Night. I just recently learned about food blogging events (from another event featuring Closet Cooking actually, but more on that another day), and I am really exciting about participating in some. Especially now that I am starting to feel that things here are coming together and my postings on this blog are starting to come out quite nice.

I found the precursor to this recipe on A Dash of Sass. The recipe was full of things I love and if I had made it in a timely manner I might have stuck to the recipe as posted. But I was busy, and the longer it took me to make it the more I altered it in my head.

Originally, this was a stew. I thought mine would still be a stew, but there was a little too much in it. So it turned out to be an incredibly thick stew. Really, it's more like a stovetop casserole.

It's a stew-erole!

Italian Stew-erole

1/2 cup white or yellow onion (about 1/2 a med/small onion); chopped

2 cloves garlic, 3 if they are small; minced

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup uncooked ditallini (or other miniature pasta)

1/2 cup red bell pepper; diced

1 cup zucchini; diced in big chunks

15oz can cannellini beans

14.5 oz can crushed or stewed tomatoes

1/2 lb italian sausage*, bulk or removed from casings

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp italian seasoning mix

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping

salt and pepper to taste

*I do not eat meat, I eat faux meat. But I find most recipes work fine either way, so I will include directions for either choice.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Make sure not to over cook. Set aside.

If using real sausage, cook in your large saucepan over medium heat (just like you you would ground beef). When cooked through, set aside

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.

Cook onion and garlic until onion begins to soften, about 2 min.

Add zucchini and red bell pepper, cook about 5 more min.

Add cooked sausage to pan, or crumble veggie italian sausage into pan and cook through.

Add entire can of tomatoes, including all of the liquid. (I used crushed tomatoes, but I think stewed would have worked out better because there are more big chunks in stewed tomatoes.)

Add the basil, oregano, italian seasoning mix, a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Drain and rinse canellini beans. Mix in.

At this point I also added ½ a cup of cheese directly to the dish and stirred it in because I wanted the Parmesan flavor mixed throughout. I'm not really sure this was a good idea though, because I didn't like having all the cheese strings throughout it since there was not enough liquid for the cheese to thin out.

After the cheese was melted in the best I could get it I folded in the cooked pasta. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. (I just realized red chili flakes would also be a great addition, I'm gonna add some of those next time.)

Once everything is heated serve with grated Parmesan for topping.

That was quick, right? And yes, it is as good as it looks.