Farm Kitchen Chronicles: Italian-inspired Hotdish
A short history of hotdishes, the Midwestern Classic
I had never heard of hotdishes until a few months ago. Even though hotdishes to some say “midwestern”, they definitely skipped Illinois in its spreading of popularity; in fact, as far as I can tell, hotdishes are mostly known in Minnesota, spreading like a watercolor dot to North Dakota and Wisconsin. Since we are currently in western Wisconsin, we are in that dot.
One of our neighbors, a woman in her late sixties, is moving to Madison, and, knowing I like to cook, kindly gifted me a load of old cookbooks she had collected. She has been living in this area since she was born, and many of these cookbooks (some that have Depression-era recipes, many of them written by cooks from Wisconsin church potlucks) have recipes for “hotdishes”. It made me delve into what exactly hotdish is.
The rough definition of hotdish is a casserole (but don’t call it a casserole!) that has a protein, a starch, a vegetable, and a sauce. The most standard hotdish has a top layer crust of tater tots, though that was not popularized until 1956. In 1930, the word “hotdish” was used for a recipe in a cookbook written by the Grace Lutheran Ladies Aid. The recipe called for ground beef, onions, celery, canned peas, canned tomato soup, and macaroni, all to be stirred together and baked.
During World War I, recipe books began having different recipes for hotdish, recipes that set out to stretch small amount of meat to feed entire families; the origins of hotdish stem from how to feed people on not much money, and using what you have. I made this recipe after reading tons of hotdish recipes. Many have cheese, many have cream, many have tomatoes, and many have none of those. Many have a creamy canned soup base (so many old comfort recipes do!). And many, many have tater tots as the top layer.
Instead of tater tots, I used slices of potatoes, as plain potatoes are obviously a healthier version, and white potatoes, despite having a bad rep, are high in vitamin C, anthocyanins, and carotenoids. Plus, we are still eating our potato harvest from this last season. Many recipes used heavy cream; I used ricotta cheese. Most recipes called for canned vegetables, but I used the last of our fresh spinach here. Frozen vegetables work great too.
Hear me out, but what I find interesting about hotdish is that they are empowering; they are made for lean times, and use what you already have, and they are made for people who are not really wanting to think about “cooking”. In other words, hotdishes are definitely not…complicated, but a way of still getting homemade food on the table. They are also truly versatile: if we still had some frozen green beans for this year’s harvest, I would have thrown them in, as many, many recipes call for canned green beans. Likewise, if I had some mushrooms, I would have used those too. In the short documentary Minnesota Hotdish: A Love Story, one woman so aptly put it this way: hotdishes are a way to feed people cheaply with what you have, without resorting to buying a bunch of fast food from McDonald’s.
Hot dishes are not glamorous, not fancy, and actually don’t look very pretty; much of the best-tasting food does not. But it is comforting, especially in the coldest, snowiest of Midwestern winters: hygge in a glass pyrex.