Macaroni Soup - original recipe by Barry L. Kramer (last modified/created
date unknown; original file lost due to accidental overwrite)
Preparation time: about 20 minutes
Cooking time: about 2.5 hours
Ingredients
1.5 lbs. ground beef (up to 2 lbs.)
5 small to medium cooking onions, chopped (or about 3 large ones)
2 celery stalks (or more, to taste), chopped, plus a leafy sprig... I use about
4 stalks because I like celery
Quart of canned tomatoes
4 tsp to 5 tsp beef base or equivalent (as broth or bullion)
1/2 box to 3/4 pound box of elbow macaroni (you could use a whole box for 2
lbs. of meat)
Directions
In a 6-quart pot, brown ground beef with a little salt and pepper. (Note: "brown"
means all the liquid is cooked off and the meat is getting brown... not just
cooked through). Click for image
of browned beef.
When brown, strain fat into a bowl to separate meat from the fat. Reserve a
little of the fat and put back in pot to brown onions discarding excess fat.
Keep beef warm by covering with foil. (Basically, pour pot contents through
strainer, draining into a bowl. Beef remains in strainer. Pour some fat, maybe
2T or so, from bowl back into pot and discard excess fat from bowl. Empty strainer
into bowl; cover with foil.) Optionally, onions may be cooked in olive oil instead.
Reserve a little (a tablespoon or two) of the chopped raw onion to add later
and brown remainder of the onions in the beef fat, or use olive oil if preferred.
Stir onions often and get them brown. When all onions are tan to golden brown,
add the following to the onions and combine:
4 C water
the browned ground beef
the reserved raw onion
4t to 5t beef base
Quart of canned tomatoes
the leafy sprig of celery
the chopped celery (unless you prefer it more firm, in which case add it later)
sprinkle of fresh pepper
(don't add the macaroni yet).
Cover and cook the above. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, boiling very
lightly, 1 hour and 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. If in a hurry, you could
boil it moderately for an hour and 10 minutes, stirring more often. Tomatoes
should be falling apart, and celery should be soft. If you like the celery crunchy,
you can delay adding the chopped celery (but add the leafy sprig early for flavor).
Cook's choice here.
Macaroni are cooked separately. About 20-25 minutes before the preceding is
done, boil water on high heat for macaroni (add a little salt and olive oil).
When water is boiling vigorously, dump macaroni in and stir. Start timer.
Keep heat on high, stir continuously, cook 4 minutes, then drain and rinse with
cold water.
Add macaroni to other cooked ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
Cook (lightly boiling) uncovered, stirring often, until macaroni is done to
desired texture.