Fideo {aka Mexican Pasta}

Recently, I got a great deal on some pasta thanks to a stock boy dropping a case and breaking some of the noodles. The manager decided to sell them for 25 cents for a one pound box. I told him I’d take the whole case. Good thing for me, my family doesn’t care if pasta is pre-broken.

One of our favorite pasta dishes is Fideo. When Carl and I lived in Ft. Worth our next door neighbor was a first generation Mexican American family. I learned a lot about cooking from scratch from the mom.

To me, it’s kind of like Spanish rice but with noodles. As I looked over the internet for “authentic” recipes I realized that ,just like Pancit Bihon, people kind of do their own thing when it comes to fideo.

I like to add meat and some greens to ours. Right now we’re adding kale and swiss chard. Also, I used some of our tomato broth left over from canning tomatoes in this batch. I’ve also used canned diced tomatoes and I’ve used tomato powder made from our dehydrated tomatoes. As you can see this is a super versatile recipe.

Fideo Recipe
1 pound ground beef
1 pound fideo vermachelli (or broken angel hair pasta)
1/2 medium onion -diced
4-5 cloves garlic -diced
1 – 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 – 8oz can tomato sauce (optional)
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

In a large pot brown hamburger meat with onion and garlic. Since we use grass fed beef I rarely drain the grease from the hamburger but if you have a lot of grease in the pan you will want to drain some off.

Add pasta, if you have enough room in your pan you can brown the pasta just a bit. I’ve done it with browning the pasta and without and haven’t noticed a difference.

Add tomatoes, about 2 quarts of water and seasonings. Stir.

Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and cook until pasta is soft.

We like ours kind of dry so we leave the lid off but if you like it more like soup you can add more water and cover the pot while cooking.

Enjoy!

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