Momma's Easy Noodle Bake
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If you’re craving a casserole that fills the belly and warms the heart, this recipe for Momma’s Easy Noodle Bake is it.
Growing up on a farm my mom was always trying to find something in a big casserole that would feed everyone, including the workers. So, she came up with this quick and easy layered noodle bake recipe. It has a lot of protein, vegetables and carbs, so it is really an all-in-one dish.
Onions, Celery, Carrots
The recipe begins where many great recipes do, with chopped onions, celery and carrots. To chop the onion, the 7-5/8″ Petite Chef is the knife to use. It’s designed for easy chopping.
Use the same knife to chop the celery. Its sharp straight-edge blade cuts cleanly through the stringy ribs.
For the carrots, give Cutco’s 6″ Vegetable Knife a try. It is a sharp, steady knife for cutting carrots, and the wide blade lets you scoop up the pieces to toss into the pan.
Sauté the onions, carrots and celery until they soften a bit and the onions turn translucent.
Adding the Ingredients
Once the vegetables are cooked, add the ground beef and cook until browned. Then add in tomato sauce or puree.
I like to add a Parmesan rind to the meat and vegetable mixture next. It adds some creaminess and additional flavor to the recipe. Be sure to remove it before you mix the meat and veggies with the noodles.
Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper are the seasonings for this dish. While the recipe calls for specific measurements, taste as you go and adjust them as you see fit.
Making the Noodle Bake
For the noodles, I recommend that you boil them until al dente (tender, but still a bit firm), because they will be going into the oven as part of the casserole to bake a while. If you cook them completely done they get kind of broken up when cooked in the oven.
The noodles are mixed with sour cream, cottage cheese and Italian seasoning.
And now the fun begins. Layer in half the noodles, remove the Parmesan rind from the meat and vegetable mixture, and then layer half of it on the noodles and top with mozzarella cheese. Repeat those steps and the casserole is ready for the oven.
Note, if you want, you can just mix the noodle mixture with the meat mixture, without layering, and bake it that way.
Momma’s Easy Noodle Bake is a pretty straight-forward dish, really. What I love about it is when you make it you can have a whole table of family and friends around because it feeds so many people.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 quart tomato sauce or puree
- Small piece of Parmesan rind
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning, divided
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 (12-ounce) bag of No Yolks® noodles
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 1/4 cup cottage cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat, add butter and olive oil. Add vegetables and sauté until the onions become translucent and vegetables soften a bit.
- Add ground beef to vegetable mixture and cook until meat is brown.
- Add tomatoes and Parmesan rind. Then add the 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper, turn heat to low and let simmer for at least 5 minutes.
- While the sauce is cooking, cook the noodles al dente per the package directions.
- Mix the cooked noodles, sour cream, cottage cheese and remaining Italian seasoning in a separate bowl. Set aside.
- Remove the Parmesan rind from the meat mixture.
- In a baking dish layer half of the noodle mixture, half the meat sauce and half of the mozzarella cheese. Then repeat.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese melts and dish is bubbling.
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