coming soon: a v exciting lil series on pasta grannies. but for now, noodle grannies!!!

if i were a good jewish granddaughter, i would have posted this in time for rosh hashanah. or at least in time to break the yom kippur fast that i didn’t participate in. but then, if i were a good granddaughter at all, i would have posted the version of this recipe that i believe my grandmother, my baba, prefers – the one with the sugar and the cheese and the noodles mixed up together in all of their sorry-i-just-don’t-like-sugar-in-my-cheese glory. sorry, i just don’t like sugar in my cheese. however, i took a look at the recipe and the one you’ll see posted below is supposedly the original version of the recipe, whereas the one i have aforementioned is the “variation”. so, i feel okay about it. sorry baba.

but i don’t know. maybe i should err with caution on my side. she lives in north carolina and from what i understand, came out of the hurricane relatively unscathed simply because Flo didn’t want to mess with her. i know i wouldn’t!

but in reality, baba is a lover of bees and birds and literature and lives alone and doesn’t really do much cooking at all these days but this recipe is dated 1992 and I’ve heard good things about her chopped liver… i’ve never heard her say “eat, eat!” in a yiddish accent, so maybe she’s no Good Jewish Grandmother herself. but i have the fondest of memories of my sister and i as little girls, turning the guest room she was staying in into a spice-girls-themed hotel and then making baba dance to the spice girls with us, of hearing my mother’s stories involving ants in the cereal that would turn my mom and all her siblings off of raisins forever, and of just a couple months ago – of baba and all her 83 years joining everyone on the dance floor at a party because she simply couldn’t sit “We Are Family” out. so, Good Jewish Grandmother or not, I think she’s pretty swell. and i hope she thinks the same of me.

-kara

baba's noodle kugel
 
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Ingredients
  • ½ lb. egg noodles
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • a big pinch each of salt and pepper
  • 1 cup cottage cheese (optional)
  • 3 tbsp. butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
  • a pinch of paprika
Instructions
  1. preheat oven to 375 degrees f.
  2. cook the noodles to al dente according to package. meanwhile, saute the onion until it is just beginning to brown. remove from heat and set aside.
  3. drain the noodles. pour into a large mixing bowl. add the egg, the salt and pepper, and the cottage cheese if using and mix. transfer to a greased 8x8 baking pan and dot the mixture with the cubes of butter. sprinkle lightly with paprika.
  4. bake for 1 hour until lightly browned on top. cut into squares and serve.