1-lb ground beef 1- lb elbow macaroni 1- small onion 1/2- red bell pepper 1/2- green bel pepper 2- bay leaves 1/2- t garlic powder 1/2-t white pepper 1- 14oz. diced tomatoes 1-t salt 3- oz- tomato paste
I make it too and know the recipe by heart. My sister loved it and still asks me to make it when I visit her from Florida. She is up north. I have always called it American Goulash. But recently I learned its vintage name called Hoover Stew. It is a recipe that was born out of the Depression era. Interestingly it is a cheap comfort food that filled many bellies back then and kept many people from total starvation.
Holy Cow that's a lot of tomato paste. YIKES! No beef broth, tomato juice or kidney beans? Not much seasoning either but that is a really small batch. My grandma put chili powder, cumin and paprika in hers along with lots of black pepper some salt and a little bit of brown sugar to mellow out the tomatoes. This does look good and it's a quick simple version easy enough to bump up the spices to taste.
That's one of my favorite comfort foods. I make mine pretty plain with just the ground beef, onion, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce instead of paste. I add a cheese sauce to the leftover elbow macaroni. I let everyone season theirs up the way they want it. I like red pepper flakes in mine.
That looks pretty good! The one thing I would have done, is to add the pasta sooner, so it could cook in the sauce for a few minutes and absorb that flavor. I'm looking forward to trying this. Thanks!