We’re back today for the July edition of Blogville’s recipe share, “In Purrsuit of Flavour” with today’s selection being ‘your favorite summer dish’ and joining our hosts, the Weim boys over at Easy Rider and those great chef cats over at Canadian Cats. Truth be told my favorite summer dish is anything someone else cooks. I pretty much loathe cooking in general and the last thing I want to do is fire up the kitchen in summer and then spend loads of time cleaning it up afterwards but one should probably not live on cake and wine alone. #Sigh
Recently my sister shared a recipe with our family that is simple and easy to fix. Because its main ingredient is pasta, it may be more suitable for cooler temps, but it’s easy to throw together [heavy emphasis on the throw part]. Like all my shared recipes, there are ‘optionals’ to suit everyone’s taste or whatever is in your pantry. Martha Stewart no doubt despises cooks like me with our devil-may-care attitude but I’m more of a this-and-that kind of gal and work with what’s on hand. Yo, Martha…it’s called adaptation and that makes sense these days. Anyway, this recipe is one of those “dump” recipes where all the ingredients get dumped into a dish, then baked and served in the same dish. It’s perfect for serving a large crowd and easy to clean up afterwards.
Ok, cooks…let’s get started making a batch of “Firehouse Spaghetti.”
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground meat (may be omitted for us pesky vegetarians)
- ½ cup diced yellow onion
- Minced garlic (to taste)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- 2 cans (10 oz.) Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilies
- 2 cans (10 oz.) cream of mushroom soup
- 2 jars (5 oz. size) Old English Cheese (a processed cheese product found near the Chees Whiz and comes in small jars)
- 12 oz. spaghetti or linguine noodles
- Optional: Parmesan or shredded cheddar if desired on top (Parmesan is never optional at the Ranch but feel free to do your thing)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 13×9 inch dish with cooking spray. Brown ground meat with garlic and onions in large skillet. Drain fat and return to skillet. Set aside while you prepare noodles according to package instructions. At this point, I recommend opening a nice bottle of wine to drink when assembling breathe. Drain noodles (reserve some liquid in case you need to thin when assembling all ingredients). Add Rotel, cheese, and soup to meat mixture, heat over medium-low heat just to melt the cheese and soup. Pour meat mixture over the cooked noodles and mix well (add reserved liquid to thin if necessary). Sprinkle Parmesan/cheddar on top and bake for 20-25 minutes in large baking dish. Pass the wine and serve with a garden salad and crusty bread. Molto bene!
While I neglected to photograph our dish, here’s a photo from the ‘Net. This dish has a bit of a kick from the Rotel for a nice change of pace. Did I mention it’s easy to throw together and works great for a crowd?
Now if I could just get Norman to do all the cooking, I’d be happy as a clam at high tide. Till then…I’ll just have to kiss the cook-look alike.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Love Norman’s baking outfit!
He’s such a good sport letting me dress him up.
He really is!
Norman makes a darn cute chef, he definitely needs to take on that job! )
I’d hire him in a minute. He is pretty cute in that chef’s hat.
This is going to make the rigatoni I’m having tonight feel lame in comparison. But I bookmarked it for future reference so muchas gracias Monika!
Rigatoni?? Yum. What time is dinner again? Hope you like it whenever it’s made.
I just ate. Rigatoni with a meat sauce I had left over and some mozz on top. Didn’t eat much as it’s too dang hot!
Yeah, but I’ll bet too good. 😋
It was for sure.
I have your recipe bookmarked. 🙂
I like this recipe so I will give it a try next week. Just a tad too busy this weekend as the restrictions are lifted in Stage 3 and we are almost back to normal ( Almost!)
Have a great weekend. That recipe is pretty tasty and feeds a crowd. Stay safe!
Sounds good!
hugs
Mabel & Hilda
Thanks, Mabel & Hilda. It’s a nice change of pace for spaghetti.
You had me at “pasta”!!
LOL. It’s a different take but when I will make it, it’ll be a bit more healthy by not using canned items. 😇
Yes, fresh is always best!
Cream of mushroom soup eh? This sounds yummy and spaghetti is hubby’s favorite food. A must try in this rainy weather.
Jean
Yeah I did a double take and even checked with my sis who gave me the recipe. She assured me yes. Though I’d probably forego canned soup and make my own to avoid all the sodium from canned soup. Homemade mushroom soup can be quite tasty. Course it defeats the whole notion of easy on a summer day. 😆
That REALLY sounds good – Mom is going to give this one a whirl. Mom says she will most likely use shredded cheeses that we have on hand for the sauce…..YUMMMMMMMM! Thanks for the recipe!
Hugs, Teddy
I’m with your mum, Teddy. Shredded cheese sounds (and probably) will taste better than those canned jars.
That sounds like a winner!
Thanks, it’s pretty tasty especially when feeding a crowd. 😉
I imagine… The jar of cheese makes me pause, I won’t lie… 😉
Most understandable. I won’t make it with a jar-I’ll use shredded cheese.
That yummy sounding recipe reminds me of the Spaghetti Pie I used to make a lot…used to be being the operative word, we don’t do pasta anymore, LOL!
used to vbbe ing …???…Oopsie! That should read…used to be, being the operative word…
No worries, knew that. Doggone autocorrect!
Pasta is so tasty-it’s a big favorite around the Ranch.
I love your chef hat. The food looks awesome.
Thanks! That recipe may sound weird but it’s pretty tasty. And oh-so easy to whip up for a large family. 😉
My peep is NOT pesky.
As a fellow vegetarian I don’t believe I’m pesky either but some meat eaters sometimes think otherwise.
You look so cute in your chef’s hat. Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks for swinging by!
Huh. Cream of mushroom soup in the same recipe with tomatoes and chilis. Sounds awful, but the picture looked like it was good. Unfortunately, we can’t eat most of what is in this, so I’ll just take you word that it’s good!
I know..,sounds so weird but it tasted great. I’m not a fan of mushroom canned soup myself so I hear where you’re coming from.
Our hot day special is fish soup.
Sweat chopped onions. white of leek and garlic in olive oil, when soft add chopped fennel bulb…or sticks of wild fennel…with bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and a pinch of saffron.
Add tin of chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper, simmer 5 minutes.
add quarter litre of water, half litre of white wine and when simmering add hard fish, cut in pieces. After a while add soft fish pieces, mussels and prawns if you have them. Not essential..you could also add a tin of clam juice with tomato. Simmer and serve with garlic bread.
Yum! Anything with onions and garlic has to be good! So the wine goes in the soup, eh? Seems like a waste of wine. LOL
The other half litre goes in the cook….
Woohoo. Now you’re talking. Cheers 🥂
OMDs we are having marinara tonight but it will be meatless just mushrooms.
This sounds divine.
I’ll have more fresh fruit after tomorrows grocery shopping come on Down to NC
Hugs cecilia
I really need to add more fruit to my diet (and not just in beverages or with whipped cream). The beauty of this Firehouse Spaghetti is it’s easily made for meat eaters or vegetarians. Enjoy that ‘shroom marinara tonight! 🍷
I agree with that summer food, the best is done by someone else. What we have at home- combination cooking is great and needs imagination, real chefs make their own recipes, as we both, too.
Hugs and forehead kisses to Elsa and Norman.
Kristiina
My brain was frozen (hard to believe in this heat); all I could come up with initially was some sliced berries with whipped cream but that didn’t seem very inspired. Or healthy. But darn tasty. The pups say kiitos for the kisses, Kosmo.
We had that heat wave three weeks and the third we ate pizza every day, tasty and salty, it was all we needed. You should try, not home pizzas I mean.
Funny you should say that…I made pizzas a couple of nights ago. Very cheesy, very loaded with veggies and very tasty.
It seems we think same way of many things, you understand what I mean even though the sentence is bad.
🥰 I always blame autocorrect whenever those things happens.
Norman was made to wear the chef’s hat!
that recipe sounds so good… now I like all the ingredients but… allergic to corn starch darn it! Mushroom soup and possibly the cheese will have it but maybe I can find substitutes. Gotta try!! thanks Norman, er monika
No cornstarch in it unless it’s buried in one of the canned ingredients but not sure. Hope you’re able to adapt the recipe for your own needs. It’s very tasty and super easy to make.
This sounds so good. I’m going to try this dish.
Have a fabulous day, my friend. Scritches to the pups. ♥
Cool. Hope you enjoy it. Happy mid-week!
Mew mew mew Norman yore adoorab ell with yore Cheffie hat on!! Miss Monika Boney Appeteete……
**purrss** BellaDharma
“Bone appétit” and always remember to kiss the cook. 😆
ha! love it!!! just in case that we will not get old english cheese here, what cheese fits too?
I think any cheese sauce would work. I never have those jars on hand and will probably just use shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese thinned with milk instead when I make it. 😇
thanks!!!
Always our pleasure.