Southern Macaroni & Tomatoes

Dec 1

*A simple Southern side dish that grew in popularity during the Great Depression, but its roots are much older.*

Contrary to what many food bloggers report, the dish now recognized as Southern Macaroni & Tomatoes—elbow macaroni folded into stewed tomatoes, enriched with bacon grease and balanced with a pinch of sugar—predates the Great Depression by several decades. Variations of macaroni cooked with tomatoes appear in American cookbooks as early as the late 1800s, including Southern-leaning household manuals that treated macaroni as an economical starch rather than an Italian specialty. What distinguishes the Southern version, however, is not merely the pairing of pasta and tomatoes but the use of bacon grease as the primary fat instead of butter or olive oil. In a region where cured pork was ubiquitous and nothing from the hog was wasted, rendered bacon fat served as both seasoning and sustenance, turning two humble ingredients into a dish with depth, savor, and caloric heft.

While the recipe existed earlier, the Great Depression is when it became culturally entrenched. During the 1930s, elbow macaroni and canned or home-stewed tomatoes were cheap, shelf-stable, and widely available—especially in the South and Appalachia, where tomato canning was already routine. Women’s magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal and Good Housekeeping regularly promoted macaroni-and-tomato combinations in economy-focused recipe columns, often framed as meatless or “stretch” meals. Though these publications rarely specified bacon grease outright—preferring polite euphemisms like “drippings” or “fat”—Southern kitchens made no such distinction. There, the grease jar or a re-purposed coffee can on the stove supplied the dish’s defining character, ensuring that macaroni & tomatoes was not merely cheap food, but comfort food with regional authority, remembered long after the hardships that cemented its place at the table.

The use of table sugar is also a defining characteristic, but I consider it optional or suggest just a pinch to help balance the acidity of the tomatoes. However, the use of bacon grease in this recipe is simply not an option if you want the true Southern version. Needless to say, this recipe is simple, easy and can accompany any number of entrees.