This American goulash recipe goes soupy and tastes like the can when dry elbows hit uncooked tomato sauce. I brown the beef with onion and pepper, simmer the tomatoes uncovered until the sauce thickens and the tin flavor cooks off, then add the pasta so it finishes in a pot that’s already on its way to thick.
I serve it with a slice of golden garlic bread to catch what’s left in the bowl. The same ground-beef-and-tomato base shows up in my homemade chili, just without the pasta.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1½ lb (680 g) ground beef, 90% lean
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 can (15 oz / 425 g) tomato sauce
- 1 can (14.5 oz / 411 g) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 cups (480 ml) beef broth
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups (8 oz / 226 g) elbow macaroni, uncooked
- 1 cup (113 g) sharp cheddar, shredded
Instructions
- Brown the beef: Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef, onion, and bell pepper, and cook, breaking the meat into small crumbles, until the beef is browned with no pink left and the onion looks translucent, 7 to 9 minutes. Spoon off the excess fat, leaving about a tablespoon in the pot so the sauce later clings to the pasta instead of sitting under a grease layer.
- Cook the tomato paste: Stir in the garlic and tomato paste and cook 1 minute, until the paste darkens a shade and stops smelling raw. If you skip this minute, the finished sauce tastes like it came straight from the can, which is the complaint this step is there to prevent.
- Simmer the sauce uncovered: Pour in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes with their juice, beef broth, and Worcestershire. Stir in the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring it to a boil, then drop the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce looks a little thicker and no longer smells tinny.
- Cook the pasta in the sauce: Stir in the dry elbow macaroni and keep the pot at a gentle simmer, still uncovered, stirring every couple of minutes so the pasta doesn’t glue itself to the bottom. Cook 12 to 14 minutes, until an elbow is tender with a slight bite and the sauce coats a spoon instead of pooling around it like soup. If the pot looks dry before the pasta is ready, add broth ¼ cup at a time, not a full cup.
- Finish with cheese: Pull the pot off the heat, fish out the bay leaf, and stir in the cheddar until it melts. Let it stand 5 minutes so the starch sets and the sauce thickens one more notch. Taste and add salt if the tomatoes flattened it, then serve hot.
If the goulash turns soupy or the pasta goes mushy
- Don’t add the pasta with the tomatoes. If the sauce still tastes like the can after a few minutes, it needs more uncovered simmer, not sugar.
- Keep the simmer gentle once the elbows are in. A hard boil blows liquid off around the edges and leaves a crunchy clump in the middle.
- Stop the pasta at a slight bite. It keeps drinking sauce as it sits, which is why leftovers turn into a casserole brick if you cooked it fully soft.
- If you need more liquid, add broth ¼ cup at a time. Dumping a cup at the end makes soup, and you can’t take it back without overcooking the pasta.
Storage
Cool leftovers and refrigerate in an airtight container within 2 hours. They keep 3 to 4 days. Reheat on the stove over low heat with a splash of broth, or in the microwave at half power, just until hot; a hard boil turns the elbows to mush. I freeze the meat sauce before adding pasta, then thaw it overnight, bring it to a simmer, and cook fresh elbows in it. Already-cooked pasta gets bloated in the freezer. USDA leftovers and food safety covers the 2-hour cooling window and the 165°F (74°C) leftover reheat target.
FAQ
What’s the difference between American goulash and Hungarian goulash?
Hungarian goulash is a paprika stew with chunks of beef and no pasta. American goulash is ground beef, tomato sauce, and elbow macaroni cooked in one pot. They share a name and almost nothing else, so a paprika stew won’t scratch this itch, and this pasta pot isn’t a substitute for the stew.
Can you freeze American goulash?
Freeze the beef-tomato sauce before you add the pasta. Cooked elbows turn soft and waterlogged after a freeze-and-thaw. Thaw the sauce in the fridge overnight, bring it to a simmer, then stir in dry pasta and cook as written.
Can I use a different pasta than elbows?
Small shapes work: shells, ditalini, or small penne. Keep the dry weight at 8 ounces so the liquid ratio still holds. Long noodles like spaghetti don’t cook evenly in this pot, and large rigatoni stays chalky in the middle while the sauce over-reduces.
