The Pioneer Woman’s Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Classic, nostalgic comfort food at its best.
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When I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it for two reasons. One — it’s incredibly similar to a casserole my mom always made that I LOVE called Martha’s Company Casserole. And two — the Pioneer Woman is pretty much synonymous with comfort food so her casseroles are comfort food you can trust.
I was right on both fronts. This casserole is delicious classic comfort food and to me, at least, it tastes incredibly nostalgic, just like the simple pasta bake my mom has made for me a hundred times over.
You do not need anything fancy here. Quite the contrary, in fact. The base is egg noodles, which I like because they are a little softer than many of their counterparts but still chewy. Then you need ground beef, a can of tomato sauce (no seasoned marinara needed here), some cheddar cheese, some sour cream, cottage cheese, and a sprinkling of green onions. See? Easy.
You simply brown the ground beef and then pour the tomato sauce in to simmer while you work on shredding the cheese or stirring together the sour cream mixture. “The sour cream mixture” makes it sound like more of a thing than it actually is which is simply a matter of stirring together sour cream and cottage cheese.
Now, Ree Drummond calls for you to stir the cooked noodles into the sour cream mixture and then layer that with the tomato/beef sauce. I might have missed that step and just layered each component in the baking dish but I’m telling myself that it all tastes the same when you scoop it into your bowl and stir it together anyway.
And here’s how it tastes — it has the carbalicious comfort of pasta but that’s paired with a beefy tomato sauce that’s so straightforward and simple that you can adequately focus on all the creaminess running throughout this bake. And while sour cream and cottage cheese might seem odd in a pasta dish (it’s certainly not traditionally Italian), I’d like to say, don’t knock it til you try it. It’s a little basic in flavor maybe, but this hits all the right nostalgic comforting notes.
Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Yield(s): Serves 8
15m prep time
20m cook time
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
- 8 oz uncooked egg noodles
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cup small curd cottage cheese
- 1/3 cup green onions, sliced
- 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook egg noodles until al dente. Drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Drain fat as needed, then add tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper. Reduce to a simmer while you prepare the sour cream mixture.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the sour cream and cottage cheese. Season with salt and pepper, then add green onions and stir to combine. Add cooked and drained noodles and stir once more.
- Add half of the noodle mixture to a 9x13-inch baking dish. Top with half of the meat mixture, followed by half of the cheese.
- Repeat layers -- noodles, meat, then cheese, then bake until cheese has melted, about 20 minutes. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman.