Jeff’s mom gave me this recipe when we first got married because it is a family dish that Jeff adored as a child. He still does as do the kids and I. It is quick and easy to prepare. I’ve made a few tweaks over the years. Tonight I made it with ground lamb instead of ground beef because that’s what we had in the freezer but either works well. Since our herb garden is producing nicely, I used a small handful of fresh oregano that I chopped and a child sized handful of fresh thyme as well. The recipe doesn’t call for thyme but it was a spur of the moment addition and it worked well.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef or ground lamb
- 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 -2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 green pepper cut into a large dice
- 1 red or yellow pepper cut into a large dice
- 1 jalapeno pepper, diced. Remove seeds and membrane.
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- Pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 (10.5) ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 (14.5) ounce can corn, drained
- 1/2 cup black olives, cut in quarters (we had some fresh cured Italian olives in the fridge so we used them – HUGE difference for the better in the flavor but I did cut back on the salt that was used to compensate for the intrinsic brininess of the olives)
- Extra wide egg noodles, cooked according to directions on the package. (I used these noodles by Rozoni, the whole 12 oz bag)
Directions:
- In a dutch oven or small stock pot, heat 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the onions and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently until slightly browned.
- Add the jalapeno peppers, the green and yellow or red pepper. Saute for 3 – 5 minutes until the peppers are softened.
- Remove the pepper and onions from the pot and set aside.
- In the same pot, add the ground beef or lamb, salt and pepper.
- Brown the meat until it is no longer pink.
- Add the peppers and onions back to the pot. Stir in the corn, the crushed red pepper flakes and the oregano and thyme.
- Add the tomato sauce.
- Let simmer for 1o – 15 minutes.
- About 5 minutes before serving, add the olives.
- Serve over the egg noodles.
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