Ham Tetrazzini -- The Casserole That Holds the Week Together

I drove to Grinnell Saturday. Roger was in the garden — the garden that is his whole world now, the 81-year-old man who tends six tomato plants and twelve sunflowers with the same care he once gave four hundred acres. He's slower but he's still Roger. He still watches the crop reports. He still calls Jack on Wednesdays.

Thursday was tater tot hotdish, because Thursday is always tater tot hotdish and the schedule doesn't change for anything — not pandemics, not loss, not the passage of years. The tater tots go in at 375 and come out golden and the family eats them and the eating is the Thursday and the Thursday is the structure and the structure holds. But I also made chicken and dumplings earlier this week, because the kitchen doesn't only look backward. The kitchen grows.

The trees along the highway are turning — maples red, oaks gold, the Bradford pears doing their useless purple thing. Iowa falls are short and violent and beautiful. The kitchen shifts to slow mode: crockpots, Dutch ovens, the oven at 375 from September through April. The fall cooking is the cooking of a woman settling in for the long season.

Tater tot hotdish holds Thursday, but the kitchen’s been restless the rest of the week — and after the drive back from Grinnell, after watching Roger move row by row through those sunflowers with a slowness that still somehow looked like purpose, I wanted something warm and substantial that didn’t ask too much of me. Ham Tetrazzini is that dish: a creamy, oven-baked casserole that comes together without fuss and fills the house with the kind of smell that makes settling in for the long season feel like exactly the right thing to do.

Ham Tetrazzini

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 12 oz spaghetti or egg noodles, cooked and drained
• 2 cups cooked ham, diced
• 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
2. Make the sauce. In a large bowl, whisk together the cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, and milk until smooth. Stir in garlic powder, black pepper, and salt.
3. Combine filling. Add the cooked noodles, diced ham, peas, onion, green pepper, and 1 cup of the cheddar cheese to the sauce mixture. Stir until everything is evenly coated.
4. Transfer to baking dish. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and spread it into an even layer.
5. Top and dot. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar and the Parmesan cheese over the top. Dot with the small pieces of butter.
6. Bake. Bake uncovered at 375°F for 30–35 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling around the edges.
7. Rest and serve. Let stand 5 minutes before serving to allow the casserole to set up slightly.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 520 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 52g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 980mg