Food trends come and go. And ideas, ingredients, or dishes that you might think aren’t exactly cool, always seem to have a way of coming back around. Being thrifty and using offal and off cuts is fashionable. It’s hip to garden again. The values of my Gran are suddenly in vogue. How charming!
My friend John loves Columbus, loves food and thought it would be great to celebrate Johnny Marzetti with a collection of blog posts from local Columbus food bloggers. I was so pleased to be included in the crowd and to learn about this dish, not being a Columbus native. I assured John I’d never heard of or eaten this dish before. But now what truly fascinates me is that there is a version that made its way to the Rio Grande valley of Texas, a stone’s throw away from where I grew up. And as it turns out, it’s something that my Grandma often made for Sunday dinners and potlucks. I knew it as Macaroni Crunch, but many others knew it as Johnny Marzotti. Maybe this is the sort of unspoken influence that food has on our lives.
Here’s my version of this Ohio and South Texas classic. I’ve put my own spin on it by using heirloom tomatoes, fresh mushrooms and peppers from my back garden. The result is a fresh take on the already entirely delicious French’s-fried-onions-canned-mushroom-soup-and-canned-tomato version with which I grew up. And somehow, I think Grandma might be proud. Proud of my garden and my thriftiness and my comfort in the kitchen.
