The men in my life (aka: my husband and adult son) are so easy to please, when it comes to what I cook for them. They lovingly express their appreciation for my culinary achievements with more "sophisticated" fare, such as "
Osso Bucco"
or classic "
Beef Bourguignon with homemade egg noodles".
Yet, one of their favorite recipes that I still make for them is "
Sloppy Joe's". It's certainly not fancy, but it's comfort food that never fails to please them. There's something about ground beef, tomato paste, tomato sauce, bell pepper, onion-- and a few other goodies-- served atop a hamburger bun that they sink their teeth into with gusto. While my son no longer lives here, officially, he is a frequent guest for meals-- and I'm absolutely fine with that.
I watched Food Network's and very popular food blogger, Ree Drummond
(
Pioneer Woman) make this recipe on her show, that I still record. It
looked very simple to make, and I had all the ingredients on hand--
except a loaf of French bread (easily bought on the way home from
work).
The meat sauce is quite simple to make-- it's really just a thick spaghetti sauce, with bell pepper added to it.
Instead of making the "Joe's" with hamburger buns, I used thick-sliced French breads, slathered with a butter blend of Parmesan cheese, garlic and other herbs. Holy Moly!
They were baked for about 15 minutes, while the meat sauce was simmering on the stove. We love garlic bread, so I had a hunch my men would really enjoy this dinner.
Yep, I was right! They thought the dinner presentation was impressive, and I have to admit, it's not too shabby-- for a weeknight dinner that didn't take a lot of work to do. I sent my son home with the rest of the filling (there was plenty leftover, as I think this can feed 6-8 hungry folks).
TASTING NOTES: Red bell pepper is something I keep in my refrigerator, but this time, I only had a yellow bell pepper. No problem, it worked out just fine. Think of this recipe as spaghetti, without the noodles and garlic bread on the side. We pondered on how was best to eat this, and we decided that a fork and knife was the easiest way. I will definitely make this meal, again-- and the garlic bread was super easy and delicious to make.
As always a printable recipe card is at the end of this post.
Enjoy!
Saw this on Facebook and have been looking forward to reading the blog post. It looks and sounds delicious, but I would have had to have both pieces of bread topped with the sauce- yummy.
ReplyDeleteOh yes! A sloppy Giuseppe. Delizioso.
ReplyDeleteOne complaint I always had about traditional sloppy joes is that they are too sweet. This is right up my alley. It doesn't seem to have that sweet, watered down, kid friendly (or so they say) flavor to it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed sloppy Joe's as a kid. I know I would still enjoy them. Love that you added a parmesan butter spread-delicious. A definite adult version.
ReplyDeleteVelva