Johnny Machete: Eating Gilmore Challenge Week 7

“Pina will serve tiny, proper servings. Johnny Machete needs to be presented in a heap.” “Johnny Machete?” “That’s the name of this vile concoction.” “It’s delicious.” “It’s not bad.” “It’s twelve different colors.” “Come on, Mom, eat it.” “It looks like someone already did.” “Emily.” “I’m sorry. I’m happy you’re happy, and to prove it, I will take exactly three bites of this before I throw it out.” “Thank you.”

Ingredients:

• ½ cup red bell pepper, diced*

• ½ cup red onion, diced

• ½ cup orange bell pepper, diced

• ½ cup butternut squash, diced

• ½ cup rainbow carrots, peeled diced

• ½ cup yellow bell pepper, diced

• ½ cup yellow squash, diced

• ½ cup green bell pepper, diced

• ½ cup zucchini, diced

• ½ cup eggplant, diced

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp pepper

• ½ tsp Italian seasoning

• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes

• 28 oz canned crushed tomatoes

• 1 14-oz can cream of mushroom soup

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened

• 1 lb small tubular rainbow pasta such as elbow or corkscrew, cooked

• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

*I julienned my vegetables, so if you want to do that too, feel free!

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Add a drizzle of olive oil to a large stockpot and place over medium heat.

3. Add all vegetables and garlic to the pot and sauté for about 7-8 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and fragrant.

4. Add the salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes to the vegetables and stir to combine for an additional 2 minutes.

5. Add the tomatoes, mushroom soup, and cream cheese and stir to fully combine. Allow to simmer for about 3 minutes or until the cream cheese has melted.

6. Remove from heat and stir in the pasta.

7. Pour the casserole mixture into a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top.

8. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes at 400 F. Then remove the foil and cover for an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.

Definitely needs to be presented in a heap!

At long last, I give you the famous - infamous if you’re Emily Gilmore - Johnny Machete. If you would ask me what my most requested dish would be when I first started cooking my way through Gilmore Girls, I would have never guessed it would be this one. But lo and behold, Richard’s Johnny Machete has been requested more times than I can count. I don’t know if it’s because it’s an uncommon dish, and fans of the show are curious as to what it is, or if it’s because Emily makes it sound so unappealing that my followers just wanted to see me make it.

When I initially did this episode from Season 3, I made a slice from the world’s largest pizza (almost) that Rory has made for Lorelai’s birthday. You can read the saga of making a 2-ft slice of pizza in my tiny apartment oven saga here. I’m definitely proud of the giant pizza, but I knew I’d need to deliver the Johnny Machete at some point to satisfy my followers. I was a little nervous because as I mentioned, Emily does not make it sound delicious. It calls for cream of mushroom soup, which I’m not a fan of, so I added cream cheese to hopefully mask the soup flavor. Emily also refers to it as having 12 different colors. So I used 9 colorful vegetables, rainbow carrots, and rainbow pasta to get as close to 12 different colors as I could.

Let me know if you make your own Johnny Machete. This week’s challenge for The Eating Gilmore Fall Challenge is Friday Night Dinner- make something from the Gilmore mansion. I can’t wait to see what everyone shares. If you’ve been missing out on the challenge, make sure to follow me there to participate and be entered for the giveaway at the very end!

Happy cooking from the Hollow!

If you missed what I made for last week’s challenge, catch up here!

Johnny Machete- perhaps the perfect comfort food.