- Bundt Pan
- Cooking Spray/Canola Oil
- Grater
- Medium size pot/saucepan
- Pasta making pot
| Ingredient | Quantity | Measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Evaporated milk | 12 | oz (can) |
| Hoop Cheddar | 6-ish | oz |
| American Cheese | 6 | slices |
| Panko | 1-ish | cup |
| Macaroni | 1 | box |
| Fontina | 6 | oz |
| Parmesan | 1 | oz |
| Parsley | some | garnish |
| Egg | 2 | Large |
| Cornstarch | 1 | tbsp |
| Salt & Pepper |
- You can use any cheddar over hoop cheddar, but hoop gives the best results.
- American cheese, the orange kind, gives it enough color and enough goo. If you like a little extra stringy, add a little bit of mozz.
- Preheat oven to 400
- Shred the cheddar and fontina, and chop the american cheese, and mix with cornstarch
- Heat, but don’t boil evaporated milk on the stovetop, medium-low heat.
- Cook macaroni in heavily salted water to a really early al dente. It needs enough bite to continue being cooked w/o getting soft. Usually 5-6 minutes.
- Add the cheese to the evaporated milk, and stir until melted. Salt & Pepper the cheese sauce to taste. About 7 minutes
- Actually taste the cheese sauce. You can add a little bit of fun here if you want, a little dijon, some hot sauce, smoked paprika, whatever!
- Beat the eggs
- Drain the macaroni, toss in the cheese sauce, add beaten eggs, and mix to combine
- Liberally spray/oil the bundt pan & pour the mac and cheese in there
- Bake for 30 minutes, middle rack
- finely grate parmesan & mix with panko, and salt & pepper
- Let sit for 10 or so to cool & congeal
- Turn out onto an oven safe cooking dish (for broiling)
- Turn the broiler on
- Liberally coat the top of the mac and cheese with panko mixture
- Broil, spin, broil.
- To with parsley, cover until ready to serve
- 8x8 or 9x9 ovensafe pan
- Pasta making pot
- Saucepan
| Ingredient | Quantity | Measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Asiago Cheese | 4 | oz |
| Fontina | 4 | oz |
| Romano | 4 | oz |
| Parmesan | 2 | oz |
| Butter | 2 | tbsp |
| Heavy Cream | 1 | Pint |
| Flour | ||
| Frozen Peas | 1 | cup |
| Pancetta | 6 | oz |
| Shallots | 1 | medium |
| Garlic | 2 | cloves |
| Macaroni | 16 | oz |
| Thyme | ||
| Rosemary | ||
| Oregano | ||
| Panko | 1 | cup |
| Salt & Pepper | ||
| Parsley | Some | Garnish |
| Lemon |
- Do not use, under any circumstances, kraft cheese. You know this. I know this.
- I don’t have a preference for pasta here, you can use traditional elbows or shells, or mezzi ziti
- You can use guanchale or bacon in place of pancetta, even procuittto, crisping procuitto to put on top is a pro move too
- You could use Mushrooms in place of pancetta to make it vegetarian, but if you do, add capers.
- Feel free to add some greens, escarole, kale, swiss chard, anything that can stand a little heat
- You can absolutely use a different set of cheeses, heck, even a bit of gorgonzola if you’re funky like that
- Zest Lemon
- Destem Thyme, Rosemary, and Oregano
- Grate Asiago, Fontina, and Romano
- Mince shallots, garlic
- Heavily salt water to boil for pasta, cook to al dente, drain (BUT NEVER RINSE!)
- Light olive oil pan, set to medium-high heat
- Put pancetta in pan and once it starts to render, add shallots and 1 cloves worth of garlic, salt & pepper, about 3-4 minutes
- add peas, thyme, rosemary, and oregano, cook until peas are cooked through
- Leave the frond in the pan, and save the fat in the pan as best as you can. Put the filling in the microwave to keep it warm (or cover it)
- Make a roux from flour, butter and the pan oil and frond (i never can tell you how to make a roux, y’gotta feel it)
- Make it into a besciamella (béchamel) with the heavy cream, salt & pepper it, practice a béchamel a lot, it’s useful!
- You could, and this is optional, flour pancetta/pea mixture, and then butter & béchamel it, but i like the extra step for control
- Add the asiago, fontina, romano, and 1/2 of the parmesan to the béchamel, and melt. You know it’s a good cheese sauce when it’s thick enough to stick to the back of your spoon
- Mix the drained macaroni to the cheese sauce, put the pea/pancetta mixture back in mix to combine. Make sure to S&P at this step too.
- Pour into your square pan, hook the oven up to broil.
- Make a gremolata, mince the parsley, add the other 1 clove worth of minced garlic, add lemon zest, a little olive oil, and add it to the panko
- Crust it over the mac and cheese & broil for 2 minutes until browned
- Medium sized saucepan
- Pasta making pot
- Small pot
- 8x8 or 9x9 pan
| Ingredient | Quantity | Measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Leftover Meat | 16 | oz |
| Frank’s Hot Sauce | A lot | |
| Green Onions | 4 | |
| Cheddar | 6 | oz |
| Blue Cheese | 3 | oz |
| Yogurt/Sour Cream | 4 | oz |
| White Vinegar | 1/4 | cup |
| Flour | ||
| Butter | 2 | oz |
| Hot Pepper | 1 | |
| Bell Pepper | 1 | |
| Red Onion | 1 | |
| Fontina | 6 | oz |
| Macaroni | 1 | Box |
| Evaporated Milk | 12 | oz |
| Cornstarch | 1 | tbsp |
| Mozzarella | 4 | oz |
- Do NOT use fresh/wet Mozz. Mozz is here because it gives it a little stringy texture which is nice with the POUND of filling.
- You can use a hot pepper, whatever you want for your heat level, bird’s eye, habenero, or skip it if that’s your jam
- If you hate blue cheese, use feta straight up and skip the yogurt. Maybe add a little ranch powder.
- You might save a little blue cheese to put in the cheese sauce, don’t do it!!!!!!!! sprinkle it in at the very end
- Works great with leftover rotisserie chicken, or better, SMOKED CHICKEN
- Dice the hot pepper into small bits, de-rib and de-seed them (unless you like that stuff)
- Small dice the bell peppers and red onions
- Shred the fontina, cheddar, and mozzarella, add in 1 tbsp of cornstarch and mix
- Separate the green onion tops from bottoms, and cut into 1/4-ish pieces
- Make the Blue Cheese/Sour Cream/Yogurt mix. Just mix them together until they get a little lighter and fluffier. Salt & Pepper
- Put in the fridge until ready to serve!
- Boil the Macaroni in heavily salted water until al dente, drain, and set aside
- Time to make the hot sauce roux! Butter in a pan until it melts, turns brown, just a LITTLE BIT of until it gets nutty, less than you need for a cheese sauce! Maybe a tbsp.
- Dump a boatload of hot sauce in there (probably 1 cup worth), it’ll start thickening, which is good! thin it out with vinegar, and it’ll stick nicely, add diced/minced hot pepper here, salt & pepper it
- Set it to the side
- cut the chicken/leftover turkey, what have you into small enough pieces
- Oil a pan, add the white bottoms of the green onions, and then drop the the chopped meat in there
- Once it gets browned a bit, add that back to the pan of the hot sauce roux, let it get all messy, and then put it off to the side.
- Preheat the oven to 350
- Make the cheese sauce! Heat evaporated milk to a low simmer
- Add cheese to evaporated milk, let it melt, salt and pepper it, and TASTE IT.
- Add the pasta, add the meat, toss it together with the cheese, add the bell peppers and onions
- Put in the square pan, cover it with a little bit of cheese if you got it left over, top it with some hot sauce, a piece of foil and into the oven for 10 minutes
- Top with green onions. MAKE IT WORK.
- Serve with drizzled blue cheese over the top.
- Medium sized saucepan
- Pasta making pot
- Small pot
- 8x8 or 9x9 pan
| Ingredient | Quantity | Measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Fontina | 8 | oz |
| Gruyere | 4 | oz |
| Butter | 2 | tbsp |
| Heavy Cream | 1 | Pint |
| Parmesan | 2 | oz |
| Flour | ||
| Mushrooms | 8 | oz |
| Dried Mushrooms | 2 | oz |
| Shallots | 1 | medium |
| Garlic | 2 | cloves |
| Macaroni | 16 | oz |
| Thyme | ||
| Whole Nutmeg | 1-ish | tsp |
| Fried Onions | Handful | |
| Salt & Pepper | ||
| Green Beans | 3/4 | lbs |
- You can make this ahead of time, and fridge it, but it’ll take probably 20-30 minutes to cook through. YMMV.
- Chop the dried mushrooms
- Chop the regular mushrooms into small-ish bits
- Cut ends off of green beans & cut in to 3/4 inch pieces “bite size”
- Heat the heavy cream to a loooooow simmer, add the dried mushrooms and take off the heat. You’re steeping and rehydrating the mushrooms, but giving it a lot of flavor, 5-10 min
- Cook the Macaroni in heavily salted water al dente, drain
- Grate the Fontina, Parmesan, and Gruyere
- Chop the shallots, dice the garlic
- Put the mushrooms, shallot, and garlic into an oiled pan at medium-high heat, salt and pepper, and cook until lightly browned
- Add the green beans to the mushrooms, and saute for 3-4 minutes, take off of heat
- Preheat oven @ 350
- Start making the roux, put the flour in, and add the cream mushroom sauce (ha, ha, ha)
- Salt and pepper the roux, and add the cheeses in
- Once the cheese melts, add the nutmeg and thyme, stir and combine, TASTE IT!!! You shouldn’t be able to pinpoint the nutmeg, but know that it tastes different. Don’t overdo it.
- Add the pasta, stir, and put in your square pan
- Spread Fried Onions on top, cover with aluminum foil, put in for 10-ish minutes until warm thorough.