Everyone has that one pot meal from the Great Depression that has been passed through generations of family members and enjoyed by all.
Living in rural Pennsylvania, we have come to appreciate some very simple and plain meals, passed down generations from my husband’s family. This dish was really borne out of necessity, as his grandparents lived through the Great Depression and had very few and simple pantry items. Being farm people, the peas were readily available and made this dish a seasonal meal.
Pot pie is a contested item, at least around here. True “pot pie” is always up for debate depending on who you ask.
We have two kinds of pot pie; boiled and baked. Baked is self-explanatory, you assemble it and bake it in the oven. Boiled pot pie, which is what this dish consists of, is cooked in a pot on the stove, boiling until done.
Peas
Peas being one of the stars of the show, are readily available in your early June garden. Our kids (myself included) have always enjoyed the harvesting of peas; popping the shells and trying to get most of the peas into a bowl is great fun!
The noodles
The other star are the actual pot pie noodles. Some people like to buy noodles at the grocery store, but to stay authentic and true to the original recipe, I make my own.
The next step is to get a big pot of water with butter, salt and pepper to boil. Once boiling we add the shelled peas and let the pot boil until the peas are almost tender. After the peas cook (which could take a while since fresh peas take longer to cook), I add the homemade pot pie noodles, and boil those gently until they puff and float.
Your one pot meal from the Great Depression
Your one pot meal is now ready to plate and enjoy!
Below is the full recipe and the steps to make this delicious and simple one pot meal for your family!
The recipe for your one pot meal from the Great Depression
- Fresh (when available, but frozen when not in season work fine also) peas. No real measurement here as the recipe is super flexible and able to increase/decrease ingredients to adjust to everyone’s needs. I usually end up using at least a couple of quarts of peas.
- A big stock pot, filled with water to about 2″ from the top of the lip. Depending on how “saucy” you like your food, you can decrease the amount of liquid to your liking.
- One stick of butter added to the pot while boiling. I like to bring the water to a boil and have the butter melted before I add the peas to the pot for cooking.
- While the peas boil, I make the pot pie dough. 1 cup of flour, 1 egg and enough milk to fill both shell halves of the egg. (The measurements I learned from my husband’s grandmother who taught me how to make this dish).
- Mix the flour/milk/egg and a dash each of salt and pepper. Mix until well combined, I like to do this by hand. I then roll the dough out to the thickness I like for noodles (remember the noodles will puff up during cooking), but not too thin that they fall apart. Then take a sharp kitchen knife and cut the size noodles you’d like; I make mine on the smaller side, larger noodles get too sloppy.
- Once you have all of your noodles made (you can make more than one batch of noodles, I usually do 2 batches for our family and to have a little left overs for next day lunches), you can slowly add the noodles, one at a time to your boiling pot, stirring to make sure they don’t stick together.
- After adding all of your noodles, I usually sprinkle a little more salt and pepper into the pot for good measure and to taste, stir occasionally.
- Everything is done and ready once the noodles are floating and deflate a bit, it’s time to serve up your Depression era meal.
I hope that your family enjoys this dish just as much as our family has. It is super easy and quick to pull together on a week night.
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