I started out making this when I was really super broke and the only meat I could afford was bacon. It always increases easily with what you have on hand and however many people you have to feed. I make this now for my boys and add in bacon add a little bit of spice and toss with parmesan cheese. Never fails to get smiles!
I made this at my hubby's request. I have not eaten this dish before so I went on his description of how his dad used to make it as to how this was supposed to be. This turned out wonderfully and my husband was well pleased. He said it was exactly like his dad's were except he wanted it soupier, so the next time I will add some tomato juice instead of sauce or maybe in addition to. I didn't have bacon grease, I just doubled the butter. Thanks for sharing this, it brought my hubby some warm fuzzies as he has some great memories of his dad. Plain and simple, this is good comfort food!
Very good recipe! I did a whole tsp of sugar but oh well...
I was surprised to see this recipe. My mother use to make this when I was little. It has always been a comfort food to me!! She just used the macaroni and a can of tomatoes.....salt and pepper and you are good to go! Its even great cold....my adult kids make it and take camping as a cold side dish. Now the grand kids even like it. 4 generations!!!!!!
My husband requested "tomato mac" like his mother used to make I couldn't get ahold of her so I found this recipe hoping he would have liked it. This turned out okay and it wasn't anything impressive. I'm not a big fan of noodle dishes to begin with anyhow. I did finally get ahold of my mother-in-law and her recipe was so much more simple and so few ingredients I thought surely it was just going to taste worse than this one. I was so so wrong. All it required was butter to your liking (we use about half a stick or so) per one big box of dry macaroni a diced onion and one can of diced tomatoes. You melt the butter soften the onions throw the macaroni in as well as the can of diced tomatoes and one can of water. The BIG BIG difference I think in her recipe is that she tosses her macaroni in dry and then stirs it all well throws the lid on and turns the heat completely off after bringing it up to a boil and lets the pasta sit and absorb all the tomato juices and butter.
this recipe is my hubbys favorite...I did use 2 cans of rotel tomatoes instead of stewed tomatoes to add that extra kick!!
THANK YOU for sharing this! I was scrolling through looking for a new macaroni dish when I saw it. This is one of those all time favorites that I grew up with, and now my kids make it for their families.
My version is only slightly different. I use the bacon grease & butter to sweat half a diced onion before adding everything together, and I always use petite diced tomatoes instead of stewed. (as a kid I hated all the little bits of celery & stuff in the stewed ones). If using diced instead of stewed...use a pinch more sugar.
Thanks again for sharing this!
I'm so glad i discovered this! As a poor college kid, I'm always excited to find cheap, yummy recipes, and this is definitely one of those!! So easy. I used extra butter instead of bacon grease, and added some garlic salt and Parmesan cheese. Will definitely make this over and over again!
Very good and very easy. I save all my bacon grease and I was looking for a nice easy recipe to use some of it up - - this was perfect and easy. Topped with Parm. cheese.
