====== Chop Suey ======
When I was a kid, this was the bomb. The rest of the country calls it goulash, but, in Maine, it's Chop Suey. I've been trying to make it well, off and on, for a while now. One problem is that mom made it wrong. I'm pretty sure she cooked elbow macaroni in a pot and ground beef in a pan and then combined them with a jar of Ragu and called it good. It was delicious and, it get better and better every time you reheat it. But, that's so very not how most New Englanders make it. It's supposed to have green bell peppers in it (yuck) and onion (Larry would say yuck)and, most important of all, the pasta is supposed to be cooked in the sauce so it absorbs all the flavors and, by absorbing the water, thickens the sauce.

I just made a batch and, rather than document what I did, I'll decrement what I plan to do next time.

1/7/26 - Interesting...I remember this recipe being disappointing. Without looking at this recipe, I tried again and what I did was not that far from this recipe. I sautéed garlic, cooked meat in it and set that aside. I used 1.1 pounds of 90/10, Two pounds would have been better! cooked a pile of diced mushrooms (like enough whole button mushrooms to about equal the volume of a pound of ground beef...) in the juice left from the meat and set them aside. Cooked the diced red bell and diced (very large) onion in some oil until the onion was sweet and hit them with probably a TBSP of Italian seasoning and a good bit of chili powder. Combined meat, mushrooms and seasoned onion/bell pepper mix in big pot with one big jar of traditional Ragu. Cooked that down a bit and seasoned it with more chili powder and salt and pepper and pouted it all over the pasta, taste and season and taste and season. Salt, pepper, chili powder until it's good. This is as close I've gotten to the ideal - just should have used 2 lbs of meat (and maybe, therefore, 1.5 jars of sauce).

===== Ingredients =====
  * 2/3 stick butter
  * 1 large yellow onion - diced
  * 1 red bell pepper - diced (all of it, I know it looks like too much)
  * 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
  * 2 lbs 90/10 ground beef
  * 1 tsp garlic powder
  * 1 tsp onion powder
  * 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  * 1 15oz can tomato sauce
  * 3 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes - I used "basil, garlic, oregano" version
  * 4 tbsp tomato paste (from a tube, maybe a whole 6 oz can wouldn't be too much...)
  * 1 lb dried elbow macaroni

===== Directions =====
  - melt the butter in a big pot or a large, deep pan
  - sauce the pepper and onion until the onions are translucent
  - add the garlic and saute another minute
  - stir in the garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning
  - add the ground beef, stir and chop until it is all evenly browned
  - add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and tomato paste including all of the juice
  - add the macaroni and mix it all together
  - as soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat down so you don't burn it
  - it's done when the pasta is al dente - if I got the quantities right, you can keep it warm on the stove for a long time without overcooking it
  - it's so much better as leftovers


originally submitted by mike on Jan 12, 2023
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