Recipes, skills & wisdom from American History
Casseroles are the quintessential American comfort food and this one just may be the Mother of them all: creamy, cheesy noodles with mushrooms, olives and sausage to fill you up and stick to your ribs.
Victory Medley just sounds so wartime patriotic, doesn’t it? Sometimes I have fun just flipping through a wartime cookbook to see what sorts of interesting things they came up with to eat, and this recipe for Victory Medley really caught my eye. Not just for its iconic title, but because of its simplicity and adaptability – everything you’d want in a casserole dish.
The combination of the vegetables might not be very “modern”, but sometimes revisiting these old recipes are like a breath of fresh air and perspective. Old cooking techniques are re-explored, forgotten flavor profiles are resurrected, and pairings that seem odd today actually turn out to be quite clever for our modern palettes!
This recipe for Victory Medley comes from the book Coupon Cookery by Prudence Penny.
Adaptable: Of course, I did adapt the original recipe to what I had on hand and to boost the flavor of a few things, but that’s what makes casseroles so great: it’s easy to adapt them to what’s in the cupboard or the fridge.
Flavorful: This casserole is full of mushroom, sausage, cheesy goodness. And if you want to amp up the zing, feel free to add in jalapenos, more sweet green peppers or even fresh or sundried tomatoes.
Easy: Casseroles were meant to be throw-in-the-pan easy, and this one is. The only extra step is browning the sausage, but that’s something you can totally do in advance and save in the fridge or freezer for when you’re ready. The rest of the ingredients mostly come from a can or frozen, so that speeds things up too.
Noodles – egg noodles preferably medium width
Sausage – regular ground sausage, though you could go for a spicy one if you’re feeling adventurous
Corn – whole kernel variety from a can, but frozen can be used too. If using frozen, add a 1/2 cup water.
Green Pepper – It’s not called for in the original recipe, but I thought the casserole needed some more color. Red, orange or yellow sweet peppers would all work great too!
Tomato Sauce
Black Olives – buy a can of sliced olives for maximum speed
Mushrooms – to up the mushroom flavor I added fresh, diced mushrooms I had on hand. White, baby bella or shiitake will do nicely.
Parsley – fresh or dried work great. I used dried because it’s what I had on hand. I usually use half the amount dried than what it calls for fresh because the flavor is more potent, but with parsley it’s not as essential to be exact.
Salt
Pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Cream of Mushroom Soup – It’s pretty easy to make this from scratch if you’re not a fan of the canned stuff.
Cook the noodles in salted water until done. Drain and set aside.
Brown the sausage, then drain off the fat. Dice the green pepper and mushrooms.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Set aside 1 cup of the shredded cheese. Then in a large bowl mix together the ingredients until well combined.
Turn into a lightly greased casserole dish and sprinkle on the 1 cup of shredded cheese.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an extra 5 minutes to brown the cheese, if desired.
Casseroles are the quintessential American comfort food and this one just may be the Mother of them all: creamy, cheesy noodles with mushrooms, olives, green peppers and sausage to fill you up and stick to your ribs.
Try subbing in diced tomatoes (fresh or canned) instead of the tomato sauce for a different tomato flavor and some added color!
Turn this into a vegetarian dish by leaving out the sausage or subbing in some veggie sausage crumbles.
