This quarter’s votes didn’t take much tabulating - it was BAKED PASTAS by a mile for Dish of the Quarter. Can’t wait to see your cheesiest, creamiest, most rib-sticking winter favorites.
I’ll start with a brief review of my dinner last night - Baked Buffalo Mac and Cheese with bacon from Domino’s Pizza. It was about as good as you’d expect such a thing to be (i.e. not that good), but acceptable for a quick and cheap takeout meal. They use ziti (not my favorite noodle) in a not-very-cheesy sauce but with a generous drizzle of Frank’s Red Hot on top, so the predominant flavor was Red Hot. Not bad, just not very balanced.
Goat Gouda, old cheddar and gorgonzola mac and cheese.
I used 1 1/3 cup of grated cheddar, ~1/3 cup of grated goat Gouda and ~1/3 cup chopped gorgonzola , added to a white sauce made from 2 cups 2 percent milk, 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp flour. Heavy pinch of nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground dry mustard and 1/4 tsp cayenne.
I cooked 1 1/2 cups of elbow macaroni to use with this amount of sauce. 2 cups dry macaroni: 2 cups milk would also work. I have liked it heavier on the sauce lately. This amount fills most of 9 inch square dish.
Winter broccoli and portabello mushroom lasagna, plus its backstory. I was particularly pleased that I managed to make just enough to fill one pan, because last time I ended up with two lasagnas. I don’t need two lasagnas.
Forgot to post this last weekend. I desperately needed comfort food this past weekend, so it was Mac & Ham & Cheese - a recipe from the old Mueller’s Elbow Noodle box, which I have memorized. Mom always added chopped chunks of ham; so I do the same. Sometimes I buy them pre-chopped; sometimes I ask at the deli for a slice of honey ham either 1/2" or 3/4" thick (which always gets me weird looks, until I explain that I’m going to chop it up for Mac & Cheese).
Always Cabot’s Seriously Sharp cheddar cheese; sometimes I add other cheeses, but not this time.
Mom used Progresso crumbs; I now use Panko crumbs mixed up with McCormick’s salt-free Garlic-Herb Seasoning Blend, with additional dried parsley.
Yes, it is, more or less, with minor changes. Mine is:
flour (not cornstarch) - the amount depends on how much I’m making, but it’s at least 1-1/2 Tbsp.
I cut back on the salt, because the ham will be slightly salty (plus, I salt the noodle water for cooking)
MORE ground mustard and pepper - at least a tsp of mustard and a half tsp of pepper - I like a bit of a “bite” to it
HELL NO on margarine! Although that might have been what the 1960s/1970s boxes said, as it was in greater use back then. I only use butter now.
only 2 cups of milk (and I usually use 1%) - maybe a smidge more
Yes on the cheese
And yes on the elbows, although I don’t usually use a half box, as they indicate - I measure out 2 cups. Maybe that’s half the box - I don’t know - I just always measure 2 cups and put it in a small bowl to dump into the boiling water. LOL
My biggest issue with this version of the recipe is the cooking process. I make a roux of melted butter, adding in the flour, salt, mustard, and pepper, cooking it over medium heat for about 30-60 seconds, whisking constantly. Then I add the milk SLOWLY (about a 1/3 of a cup at a time).
The way the recipe calls for milk all added at the same time to just the dry ingredients and bringing to a boil? Yeah, that’s a Big Nope from me. And it makes absolutely NO sense to add the margarine (or butter) after the milk. Adding milk slowly to the roux, whisking regularly, will begin to thicken the pre-cheesed sauce. Then I add the cheese in handfuls, stirring to melt on very low heat (pulling it off the heat if necessary), and add more in handfuls until you get the right thickness you want.
I bake at 350° for 30 minutes, or until bubbly, and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before spooning it out.
Thank you so much! I certainly agree about the butter, and the sequence.
So I printed out that recipe and added your improvements. Comfort food should be correct food too.
I wish I had snapped a photo, just because the browned cheese looked so good, but at the holidays for a family dinner where a vegetarian dish was called for and so was something pretty easy, I made a baked pasta dish: Rotini, roasted red pepper and tomato sauce (with the usual marinara suspects, onion, garlic, and oregano), classic basil pesto alla Genovese, caramelized onions, sautéed cremini mushrooms and artichoke hearts, and dollops of ricotta. After a bake under foil, I removed it and blanketed the top with grated mozzarella. When that had melted, I turned on the broiler to get it all bubbly and browned. This was a delicious combo that I have used before in lasagne, but this was more straightforward when there wasn’t a great deal of time (jarred roasted peppers and frozen artichoke hearts helped).
All that talk of macaroni and cheese put me in the mood to make up our favorite rendition.
Your basic whisked white sauce roux, made with:
about 6T. butter, about the same amount of a.p. flour, 4 small garlic cloves, about 2 c. 2% milk, slowly added, a few squirts of sriracha then about 10 oz. of sharp cheddar, grated. Cooked slowly, then poured over 1# cooked cellentani (this time). Some times I will bake it with homemade garlic croutons topped with extra cheddar in a large glass baking dish at 350° for about a half hour. That’s what it’s all ‘about’. Sometimes we just serve it unbaked, in soup bowls, always with a nice green salad on the side. This was mom’s recipe, she always made it with elbow mac and none of the seasonings that I add. I make it with all sorts of shapes: medium shells, twisties, penne, even gnocchi, etc. I wish I could get the wagon wheel pasta that I’d use sometimes for the kids. When we were trying to get to the next paycheck when we were kids, this cheese sauce went over cooked white rice with a sliced hard boiled egg or on toast àla Welsh rarebit (without the beer). No wonder it is an oldie and a goodie. No picture, use the imagination.
Baked tortiglioni with hot Italian sausage/mushrooms/red onion/green olives and pickled jalapenos in Mutti tomato/basil sauce topped with mozzarella, provolone and Parm/Reg. I’ll get 3 more meals outta this, and I might even have a side salad with it.
