My first ‘serious’ boyfriend was a US import, most of whose family hailed from south-central Ohio. He begged his Mom to make ‘Johnny Macaritti’ the first time I came over for dinner. She apologized, saying JM was ‘just a casserole everybody makes’…
Not where I come from…
… Nor anywhere but Central and Southern Ohio, apparently. Nevertheless, it seems to have as many names as it does cooks who can make it by heart!
According to the source story for today’s recipe, ‘Johnny Marzetti’ was a real person. But he didn’t, by all accounts, invent the recipe.
“Regardless, people eat the story up as willingly as they do the casserole itself,” recipe contributor, Sara Bior reports: “Here’s the gist: The Columbus, Ohio restaurant Marzetti’s was a downtown fixture for decades. Proprietress Teresa Marzetti concocted the cheap and filling pasta bake for cash-strap-ped students of the nearby Ohio State University and named the dish after her brother-in-law.”
Even if it’s totally apocryphal, I love that story. And I’m signing-on to it. So there.
The dish
Not quite an arms length version of mac and cheese, nor a distant relative of lasagne… But a ‘macar-oni’-based casserole that traditionally features ground beef, tomatoes, cheese and (optionally) classic veggies. The traditional spices and flavours are simple and (probably) will be acceptable to any palate.
Bir describes the dish as, “Hearty with ground beef and cheesy, tomato-sauced macaroni. […] It feeds a crowd, and it was [her source’s] go-to for countless potlucks and church suppers.”
Can’t get much more ‘Midwest’ than that!
The recipe
It’s one of those recipes that’s actually more of a rough guide to creating your own version. It’s the technique that counts, the specific ingredients not so much.
Which brings me to a few observations…
It turns out that most folks from Northern Ohio (Columbus through Cleveland) prefer egg noodles to elbow macaroni. ‘Any size or shape you like’.
You can always add more cheese if you like. Also… A number of the commenters to the source post noted that their Mom (or Grandma) always used Kraft American slices or chunks/slices of Velveeta, rather than real cheddar. ‘Made it richer and creamier’.
As for flavouring… It seems almost anything goes. One commenter said her Mom would always, “add a pinch or three of brown sugar, 4 Bay leaves, smoked paprika and cayenne.”
There are also many (sometimes clashing) ideas about what kind of tomato product(s) to use. I recommend you cut the workload and bolster the consistency of your Marzetti by using canned crushed tomatoes exclusively. Commenters seemed to disagree about whether tomato paste was needed at all!
My take
Yup… It’s a pretty loose set of ‘guidelines’, alright. But no matter what you do, and no matter how it comes out, everybody seems to love Johnny. And there are never any leftovers to worry about.
Today’s Foodie Life Lesson: You can’t go wrong with any combination of noodles, ground beef, tomatoes and cheese!
~ Maggie J.