Quick Tomato Rice Cheese Casserole

Adapt this weeknight-quick, satisfying casserole based on what’s in your fridge—or what you’re hankering for. recipe below.

AT MY WORKPLACE, WE ARE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT ROI—RETURN ON INVESTMENT—AND THE ROI FOR THIS RECIPE IS IMMENSE. This is one of those classic recipes that is weeknight fast and super flexible. The key ingredients are tomatoes, rice and cheese. What else you add depends on what you have in your fridge and what you’re in the mood for. For this batch, we included kielbasa and green bell pepper.

It also has a solid, familiar feel—I kept saying I felt like I was in the 50s, making something reliable. It comes together in a few minutes, bakes in the oven, but just for a short while, then requires just one more simple step (stirring in cheese, which is a thing I can handle on even my most hectic days) and then it’s ready to go. Start to finish for us is usually around 30 – 35 minutes, which, let’s face it, is faster than getting takeout.

It stores nicely in the fridge and tastes even better the next day. If you are a cook-ahead-on-Sunday or feeding-a-bunch person, you can multiply it. When you’ve made it once, you will see tons of other ways to change it up—swapping leftover chicken or pork for the sausage, or going vegetarian, with mushrooms and vegetable or mushroom stock. See the Kitchen Notes for some suggestions.

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Quick Tomato Rice Cheese Casserole

Adapt this weeknight-quick, satisfying casserole based on what's in your fridge—or what you're hankering for.

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped (should yield about 1-1/3 cups)
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper, diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon fines herbes
• 1-1/2 cups uncooked white rice
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 - pound kielbasa, cut into coins
• 1 cup or more grated sharp cheddar cheese (see Kitchen Notes)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400ºF.
• In medium-sized, oven safe, lidded skillet or sauté pan, heat the olive oil to medium, then put in the onions and garlic, and sauté until the onion is translucent, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Add the bell pepper, tomatoes, kielbasa and fines herbs, and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.
• Pour in the rice, stir everything together, add the chicken stock and stir again. Bring the whole thing to a boil, then cover it, turn off the heat, and put into the oven. After 15 minutes, check that the rice is ready—if it's still a little undercooked, put it back in the oven, adding a dash of liquid if the whole thing is dry.
• Once the rice is tender, take the pan out of the oven. Stir in the cheese (adding more if you like) and this is ready to serve.

Kitchen Notes

Variations on variations. This is such a staple of so many kitchens that cooks have been producing variations on this for many years. First off, you may of course substitute vegetable stock, mushroom stock, or water for the chicken stock. You may omit the meat entirely, or add in mushrooms (I recommend trying this with Julia Child mushrooms) or roasted chicken or barbecued pork. Instead of fresh tomatoes, use an equivalent volume of canned tomatoes, regular ones or spicy Ro-tel. Paprika, tarragon and thyme would all work wonderfully in here, as would a great big dash of Cholula hot sauce.

Cheese it up. For the cheese, yes, add more, even a lot more, if you wish, and do try other kinds of cheese. We used a combination of very sharp cheddar and aged Pinconning (which is a terrific cheese made in Pinconning, Michigan and, puzzlingly, little known outside the Michigan Thumb).