Beef Lombardi

I'll start right off by saying that this was perfectly fine, but it definitely didn't wow me. It wasn't overly difficult to put together, but I think I'd rather put the ingredients and effort into other things all the same. It was alright, but just not good enough for me to really be excited about making again.

Beef Lombardi
Slightly adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2016
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 tsp. black pepper
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes with red chiles
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes with chili seasonings
340g wide egg noodles (I like "No Yolks" best)
1 1/4 c. sour cream
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 Tbsp. corn starch (I just realized that I totally forgot the corn starch in mine!)
6 scallions, sliced thin
230g Montery Jack cheese, shredded

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large pan.
2. Add beef, onion, 1/2 tsp. salt, and pepper and cook until beef is done.
3. Stir in tomato paste and garlic and cook for an additional minute.
4. Add tomatoes and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
5. Meanwhile, bring ~4L water to a boil. Add 1 Tbsp. salt and noodles. Cook for 2 minutes. Reserve 2 c. cooking water and drain noodles.
6. Combine sour cream, cream cheese, cornstarch, and 1/2 c. water in the empty pasta pot. Whisk until smooth.
7. Stir in scallions, noodles, remaining 1 1/2 c. cooking water, and 1/2 tsp. salt.
8. Spread noodle mixture in the bottom of a greased 9x13" baking dish (ours is a bit on the shallow side so we actually ended up using a roast pan).
9. Spread beef mixture on top of noodle mixture.
10. Sprinkle grated cheese over the beef and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

If I do ever try this one again, I think I'd try adding a bell pepper or two to the beef mixture. And I feel like the noodle mixture might benefit from some additional flavour: maybe a little bit of vegetable broth and/or some Worcestershire sauce. I'm not sure. Peas might also be a nice touch to make this feel a little more vegetably and balanced. And I would probably just use plain diced tomatoes next time and then toss in a few chile flakes and/or a minced chipotle in adobo to bring the heat. Apparently the original recipe calls for tomatoes and chiles separately but the folks over at the Test Kitchen deiced to replace two ingredients with one. The problem is that I can't find the same brand that they used here and the tomatoes and chiles that I got just didn't seem to have much kick or flavour to them.