I can't believe this is a real recipe! My mom made this for us growing up. I've always loved it and yes she did put in bacon grease. When I had my own family, I changed it up a bit. I would cook a couple pieces of bacon to get the grease, then remove the bacon, add a little bit of garlic, chop a couple of fresh tomatoes and just cook for about 2 minutes then pour it over the macaroni. My kids loved it like that growing up. So many good memories with this recipe either way...

Love the recipe. My mom made it about every 2 weeks when I was growing up. I also save bacon grease. You forgot to put the oven temperature with your cooking time. I will try a 350* oven for the time you have given.

My mother made this same thing but with whole canned tomatoes, then you break them up as you stir, and she also added some butter and lots of ground pepper. Delicious! My mother was raised on a farm and was born in 1933, so she knew home-cooking. I am sure her mother made this with home-canned tomatoes.

My grandma made a recipe like this. She added a squirt of ketchup to hers. When you get your serving on your plate, you always added butter to it to melt into it. Don't ask me why, but it always taste amazing. She would make it with home canned tomatoes. I use the diced ones with onions and garlic.

Diced canned tomatoes did not exist until the mid 90's so can hardly be called a depression era recipe. If the cook making this dish used home made canned tomatoes or purchased whole or quartered tomatoes, it can then be referred to as a depression era recipe or after the war ration era recipe which it was in my family.

My mother would prepare this recipe with whatever she had in the pantry as you described, one being tomato soup or most of the time a jar of her canned tomatoes that she'd cut into small pieces before adding to the dish. I've always done the same especially when my children now in their 50's were small and money was sparse, but like my mother and grandmother always did, I used my own canned tomatoes from my garden or local farm or last resort, a tin of purchased whole canned tomatoes. I rarely if ever use diced canned tomatoes or petite canned tomatoes as they are treated to not break down like regular canned tomatoes do when making sauces for pasta and such.

Either way, whatever tomatoes one uses, a sprinkle or two of flavouring such as Oxo beef in the bottle ( the old days) or a flavouring that's more to your liking if you have any on hand, plus spices, meats or no meats that you might have on hand, that are added to the macaroni will either make or break the finished macaroni dish from tasting lovely or tasting bland.

On the rare times I make this dish now for my 9 grandchildren there will always be minced beef or other mince added unless the macaroni and tomatoes are served with a separate, albeit small meat serving on the side. Myself I prefer it with mince.

Cheers! Stay safe Stay well