Sunday, February 20, 2011

Gourmet Mac and Cheese, with Squash and Four Cheeses



Chances are pretty good that, if you're reading this, you've made plain ol' Mac and Cheese before. The box, the pouch, a little butter and milk and then BOOM. Done. The only problem with that is it's boring. Kenny G-levels of boring. Regular mac and cheese just doesn't do it for me the way it used to, no matter how much I've tried to spice it up. Speaking of which, don't ever get drunk, make mac and cheese and then add a half cup of crushed red peppers for some kick. That way lies madness. Trust me.

Anyway, there was a little get together this weekend, and I said I'd whip something up for it. My mom made this way back when I was high school, and I loooooved it. Whether or not people would go as gaga for it as I did wasn't exactly sure, but I liked my chances. Looking at the recipe, I realized it was pretty easy and cheap, so hey, why not?

Too bad it apparently killed one of my pots.

Gourmet Mac and Cheese

Source: From a friend of my parents, so no link today, folks!

Ingredients:

One 16 ounce box Elbow Marcaroni
Two 10-oz packages frozen pureed winter squash
2 Cups Lowfat Milk
1 1/3 Cups grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
2/3   Cup grated Monterey Jack Cheese
1/2 Cup Part Skim Ricotta cheese  
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne powder

Topping:
2 Tbs plain dry bread crumbs
2 Tbs fresh grated Parmesan or pecorino romano (use whatever you've got)
1 tsp olive oil
 
Note: I rattled off a bunch of different cheeses, but you can really use any combo you want. Be a mad cheese scientist and experiment! Just be sure not to play god...

The Cooking:

First off, preheat your oven to 375. The recipe I've got says to coat your 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray, but I completely forgot to do that and it turned out ok, so feel free to skip this if you want to.

Then cook up the macaroni, drain it and transfer it to the dish. Look, you guys know how to cook pasta, so I'm not gonna waste your time explaining this part. Cool? Cool.

Ahhh, now for the best part: The sauce. Throw your milk and still frozen-squash into a medium-sized saucepan.


Cook it over low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash occasionally with a spoon until it's defrosted and looks a lot like this.


During this part, I could hear some hissing coming from under the pot, so I took a peek down there. It looked like the bottom was sweating, and it was dripping onto the burner. I figured since I threw in something frozen, the moisture from the frozen squash was making the bottom of the pot sweat and drip water. Turns out that idea was total bunk, but I didn't realize that until I was extremely hungover the next morning.
 
Ooh, right. The recipe.
When the squash is completely defrosted, crank the heat up to medium and get the mixture to near-boiling. When you start to see steam rise from it, remove the saucepan from the heat and dump in all the cheeses and spices. Stir it around a few times to make sure everything's melted, then ladle it on top of the macaroni in the baking dish.

What you're supposed to do now is throw the topping ingredients into a small bowl, mix them around, sprinkle them on top of the mac and cheese, then put the dish in your oven for about 20 minutes (or until the cheese is bubbly). I didn't do any of that because the sauce took a wee bit longer to make than I expected, and I had to book it to my friends' house to put it in their oven. That also explains the lack of more pictures with this recipe.

How'd it turn out, you ask? People really liked it! Turns out to be pretty delicious potluck/pregame fodder. I have a picture that accurately describes my reaction upon tasting it here somewhere...



No wait, that's not the one.



That's more like it. Anyway, while cleaning up my hellhole of a kitchen in the "Oh god, I'm still drunk" phase during the next morning, I noticed something weird on my stove.



See that yellow spot? The sauce was apparently leaking through the bottom of my pot. This means I'm out a two-quart pot for the time being. Fuck. 
 
But hey, the sauce was worth it!

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