Triticale the Wheat/Rye Guy will be hosting this week's Carnival of the Recipes. He asked for potluck recipes. I thought about chili, or pasta salad, maybe trifle, but settled on an old favorite: Susan's Hamburger Casserole. This is comfort food at its best--simple, hot, gooey, calorie laden.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Put salted water in a large pot of boiling water on high heat and cook one pound of pasta al dente. I have made this dish with noodles, spirals, rotelli. Would not recommend long pasta like linguine or fettucine.
Heat a dutch oven or other large bakeable pot with lid. Or cook it in any old thing and transfer to a nice casserole dish to bake.
While the pasta is cooking, brown 1 1/2 lb. ground beef and one large chopped onion over medium- high heat.
Add a can of corn, drained. (I have taken to adding a small bag of frozen corn to the pasta water just before the pasta is drained instead.)
Add 1 pint of sour cream and two cans of cream of mushroom soup.
Add pasta.
Mix to incorporate ingredients. Susan used to add Lawry's Seasoned Salt. I leave that out and season with salt and pepper, tarragon and garlic powder (or add some garlic when meat and onions are about browned).
Wipe the sludge off the side of the pot, or transfer the contents to a nice casserole dish.
Croutons: Cut up two slices of white bread (3/4" cubes or so). Melt 1 oz. butter in a skillet. Toss bread cubes in butter. Strew them across the top of the casserole.
Bake at 350 until croutons are golden brown.
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I have never made this dish with low fat anything. It is patently not a low fat dish. You can use lean hamburger, though.
More butter=better croutons.
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