AMERICAN CHOP SUEY

AMERICAN CHOP SUEY

My mother, Rita Brosseau Piermarini, was a cook by default.  With five children and a hungry household, she prepared simple hearty food.  (Living next door to my grandmother, who was an outstanding cook, must have been intimidating.)  This recipe always confounded me---not because my mother did a great take on it---the history of it was always elusive.  This popular New England staple has almost no relationship to the Chinese dish and it is almost exclusively a regular item in New England diners.  Delicious!

  

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

Dash of salt

Dash of pepper

1 jar of Ragu meat sauce

1 lb. of cooked elbow macaroni

Brown beef and onion.  Add celery and just enough water (2 tbl.) to make the celery get tender.  Add remaining ingredients.  Simmer for ½ hour.