If you love a good Southern dish ooing and gooing with cheese, you must try our tallerine – a longtime family casserole for my Arkansas family.

One of my fondest recurring activities was going over to my aunt and uncle’s house on Sunday evenings for tallerine casserole. My Aunt Rosie made the best (and only) tallerine I had ever eaten. If you don’t care for processed cheeses like Velveeta, you may want to stay clear. But if you do like Velveeta, hold your appetite because you will want seconds. My whole family in Arkansas is about as southern as it gets. We know what’s good!

Also, my other aunt and uncle often came with their two kids. We watched America’s Home Videos and laugh our heads off. Sometimes, the men would be hovered in front of the TV watching football. That would be the cue for us kids to wander off to find whatever fun we could in my cousin’s room or outside. Those were good times. I miss Sunday night family dinners. Unfortunately, we don’t have family that live close to us so that is something my children will miss out on.

I never asked my Aunt Rosie for her tallerine casserole recipe. However, when I was in college, I purchased a cookbook from a local south Arkansas church. Low and behold, inside was a recipe for beef noodle tallerine! I showed the recipe to my mom who agreed that the recipe seemed to match my aunt’s recipe. Why I never picked up the phone and called my aunt to ask, who knows? I remember whipping up this cheesy casserole right away for my roommates. After college, it was on my “catch-a-man” menu, and I do believed it worked more than once.

Making Tallerine Casserole

To start off with, I boil a big pot of salted egg noodles. I usually use small or medium egg noodles. At the same time, I brown some ground beef along with some onions and bell peppers.

Then, after the noodles are cooked to al dente, I drain them and mix in shredded Velveeta, a can of cream of mushroom, two cans of sliced olives, and one can of whole kernal corn along with spices such as salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder. The meat is drained and added. The tallerine is poured into a greased baking pan and baked for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and gooey. I prefer to use my big oven-proof deep skillet so that I can just dump the drained noodle mixture in with the drained meat and use that so that I don’t have to dirty up another pan.  I also dust the top of the dish with paprika before it goes in the oven.

It is just too good, y’all. Too good.

Tallerine – Southern Family Favorite

This easy but hearty Southern casserole is full of ground beef, noodles, and veggies. Serve this for a crowd at family gatherings.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 buttons garlic chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can whole kernal corn drained
• 1 tsp. white sugar
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 large can black olives sliced
• 12 oz egg noodles medium
• 3/4 lb Velveeta cheese grated

Instructions

 

• In a large skillet, brown ground beef, onion, bell pepper, and garlic.
• At the same time, using a large pot, boil egg noodles according to package directions.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix tomatoes, corn, sugar, chili powder, and olives.
• Drain noodles and add noodles to bowl.
• Drain beef and add beef to bowl.
• Mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined.
• Add 1/2 the grated cheese and mix.
• Place noodle mixture in large greased casserole dish.
• Top with remaining cheese.
• Sprinkle mixture evenly with paprika.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes at 300 degrees until cheese appears completely melted.

Keyword casserole, ground beef casserole, weeknight meals

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

I’m looking forward to sharing this blog post with my aunt. I want her to know the impact those Sunday night tallerine casserole meals had on me! Be sure to check our some of our other family favorite meals – like our Indian Fry Bread tacos and our sausage and cheese tortellini soup with spinach!