Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Every now and again Ole Sweetie-Pi and I will crave a nice plateful of macaroni and cheese.  There's something special and comforting about pasta and when you add cheese, well it becomes one of the perfect comfort foods.

I found this recipe at the New York Times and was immediately intrigued by it.  First of all, the recipe says to use full fat cottage cheese and two cups of milk (nonskim!).  All righty now ~ a recipe that's not afraid of some fat!  And secondly, the macaroni is not precooked.  Everything pretty much gets dumped in the baking dish and you are good to go.  The recipe scared me; I had to try it.

Only thing is...when I checked the pantry I didn't have elbow macaroni; I had shells.  I checked my fridge, and I didn't have the full pound of cheddar so I ended up using a half and half combination of cheddar and Gruyere.  Yummm...the shells were like little scoops that held bites of cheese.  And the combination of cheeses seemed to work well, the rich and sharp taste of cheddar, with the melty goodness of the Gruyere. 

Sweetie-Pi gave a big YUMS up on this recipe, and I thought it was pretty good, but you'll have to love cheese for this one.  Also, I wish it were a bit creamier in consistency, but I loved the idea of not having to preboil the pasta.  Saved time, energy, and a pot.

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

(found on:   The New York Times Dining and Wine section)

2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup cottage cheese (not lowfat)
2 cups milk (not skim)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch cayenne
Pinch  nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt ** (optional)
¼ teaspoon  black pepper
1 pound sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated, with 1/4 cup set aside
½ pound elbow pasta, uncooked.

Preheat your oven to 375*F. 

Use one tablespoon butter to butter a casserole dish or square baking pan.

In a blender, combine the cottage cheese, milk, mustard, cayenne, nutmeg salt and pepper.  Puree until smooth.

Grate the cheddar cheese if it's not already grated, reserving 1/4 cup for topping. 

In a large bowl, combine the remaining grated cheese, milk mixture and uncooked pasta.**  Pour into prepared casserole. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Uncover the pan, stir gently, and sprinkle with reserved cheese and dot with remaining tablespoon butter.  Continue baking for another 30 minutes or until beautifully browned and bubbly.  Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

MY NOTES:  In my opinion, cheese is already quite salty.  I did not add the 1/2 teaspoon salt called for in the recipe, and the dish was salty enough.

I mixed everything together in the casserole dish to save a mixing bowl.

The directions state to cover the dish with aluminum foil.  I used a covered casserole dish, but would have used the aluminum foil if I were using a dish that did not have a fitted cover.

Skillet Lasagna

Who doesn't love a good lasagna?  Who has the time to make one during the week?  It has been a low energy week and pasta was in order and I was craving lasagna.  I just needed some carbs to help boost me out of the doldrums and I'll tell you what, this pasta dish made me and Ole Sweetie-Pi smile big!  Even after the dishes were put away, he was remarking how much he liked this; so this is going to be a keeper. 

The recipe describes itself as a skillet lasagna, and I can understand the designation, but to me this is more an Uptown American Chop Suey (or Goulash, depending on where you live). I think I just like to see my lasagna in nice layers, cut in even squares, smiles. Whatever you call it, it is good, filling, and makes enough to feed a small community.

What drew me to this recipe is that the raw pasta is cooked in the juice from the diced tomatoes.  The tomato juice was absorbed into the pasta as it cooked, giving additional flavor and nutrition, no tomato juice tossed down the drain, no waste.  I loved the big pieces of tomato in this.  The other surprise for me was the red pepper flakes.  I don't know if I've ever used red pepper flakes in a tomato sauce, but they added a bit of welcomed heat and flavor. 

Cook's Country Skillet Lasagna

(Food.com )  

1 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes plus enough water to make one quart

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
salt to taste
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound ground beef **
10 curly edged lasagna noodles, broken into 2-inch pieces **
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce **
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, divided
ground black pepper to taste
1 cup ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil


Pour tomatoes with their juices into 1 quart liquid measuring cup. Add water until mixture measures 1 quart. 

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add ground meat and cook, breaking apart meat, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes.
  
Scatter pasta over meat but do not stir. pour diced tomatoes with juices and tomato sauce over pasta. Cover and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, about 20 minutes. 

Remove skillet from heat and stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Dot with heaping tablespoons ricotta, cover, and let stand off heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with basil and remaining 3 tablespoons Parmesan. Serve.

Recipe says this serves 6, but I think it could easily serve 8, especially if you're serving with a nice salad and garlic bread.

**Okay, now my changes.  I used 1/2 pound ground beef and 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage (skins removed and meat broken up; I think the sausage adds a lot of nice flavor.).  I didn't have lasagna noodles but I did have bow ties.  I had about half a box left so I used whatever was remaining in the box.  I didn't have tomato sauce, so I substituted with 3 tablespoons of  tomato paste, which, to me, gave a deeper tomato flavor, as well as helped to thicken the sauce, and it's a substitution I will do when I make this again. 

Pasta with Chicken & Pepperoni

As there are only the two of us, cooking usually means leftovers for an additional two or three meals. I like leftovers and sometimes will eat the previous night's dinner for the next morning's breakfast, but after the second meal I am searching for ideas for a "new" and tasty meal. That's what happened after I made the Chicken Marsala: we had an abundance of noodles and chicken.

I went back to my Chicken Recipes Step by Step cookbook and found this. Sweetie-Pi and I have had this once before and we enjoyed it, and it certainly worked very well in giving new life to our leftovers.

The measurements are in metric, but because this is cooking and not baking, I didn't bother to recalculate the math. I just eyeballed what I thought would be enough pasta and pepperoni, but followed the sauce recipe exactly, because of the balance of flavors.

Pasta with Chicken & Pepperoni
Chicken Recipes Step by Step
The Confident Cooking Promise of Success

1/2 barbecued chicken (from the deli, your own, or in my case, plain, pan fried chicken)
500 grams rotini (1 pound)
50 grams pepperoni (about 2 ounces or less than 1/4 cup)
1 medium green pepper, sliced in thin strips
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons cream
Salt and pepper

Cut chicken into strips, set aside.

Heat water for pasta and cook according to package directions.

In a large fry pan, heat the oil and add the pepperoni, onion and green pepper. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes or until the vegetables are crisp tender.

Stir in the all remaining ingredients, except chicken, and simmer gently for two minutes.

Add chicken and heat through, stirring the mixture occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place the pasta in a large serving bowl and pour the chicken and sauce over. Stir to combine.

Serve immediately.

When I made this, I had two boneless, skinless chicken thighs remaining, which I cut up. I sliced up about a dozen of those pepperonis used for pizza topping. I had leftover pasta from the night before so I did what a lot of restaurants do: I just boiled a pot of water, turned off the heat, threw my pasta in for a couple of minutes to heat it through and drained.

This dish doesn't have what I'd describe as a big flavor (probably partly because I didn't use barbecued chicken). The strongest flavor was the pepperoni, which gave it a nice spicy flavor that wasn't bold. For a family that fluffs their meal out with a salad and bread, the sauce would probably cover enough pasta to serve four people, but the pasta will not be swimming in sauce.

This is not the best meal I have ever eaten, however, it is far from the worst. I will turn to this recipe again and again because of its simplicity, good flavor, and quick preparation.

Amish Macaroni Salad

Whenever I see the word Amish in a recipe title, I am pretty confident that I'm going to love it. This Amish macaroni salad is no exception. This is the only macaroni salad that I'll eat.

The first time I ate it, it was a huge surprise as I had never eaten a sweetened salad like this before. There was culture shock going on in my mouth. Around here, it's pretty standard fare to have just macaroni, mayo, maybe a boiled egg or two, and maybe tuna fish (which I positively loathe in pasta salad, by the way) and likely an onion or green pepper. Can you say flavorless? Colorless? I can go my whole life without it and never feel I'm missing a thing.

But what's a potluck or a barbeque without at least one pasta salad. Along comes Amish macaroni salad to fill the bill. So, I took a chance. It was almost love at first bite. Yellow from the mustard, smooth, creamy, sweet, tart. Flavorful. BUT, I felt the recipe was too sweet (can you believe that with my sweet tooth?) and have hence reduced the sugar in the dressing to 1/2 cup, and only use real mayonnaise, not Miracle Whip. Now' we're talking macaroni love.