My mother told me that she learned this from her mother and that it was food from the Great Depression – I’m not sure it dates that far back but it is certainly in the spirit of affordable comfort food that warms the soul and can be made on a shoestring.  I made it for Dana this week to comfort her as her back is rather sore:

It’s an easy dish.  Melt some butter, cook down some onions.  Add salt, a bit of pepper.  Add anything else at your own risk (I used panko, herbs and chilli’s above).  Stir in 1 (or several) cans of Campbell’s tomato soup (or equivelent).  Add a small bit of milk if you’d like – don’t add more than a tablespoon or two per can.  Cook noodles, al dente or less.  Mix them all together in an oven proof pan and bake for a while (comfort food is arbitrary – this can be a few minutes or up to 30).  If you topped with cheese or bread, brown under broiler.

You can use spgahetti or macaroni – if you use macaroni make sure to give a really good stir to get the sauce to fill the pockets in the noodles.   I leave my onions cut thin and left in whole rings – the more onions the better (when people grew their own this was a cheaper filling than pasta or the canned soup).  I eat it with hot sauce and generous glass(es) of milk.

This is one of a very few of my absolute favorite comfort foods and it reminds me so much of my parents and grandparents – we still eat it together from time to time.