All the stress of the past few weeks has left me craving comfort food, but it's also left my stomach feeling not-so-hot. I really wanted to dig in to some good old-fashioned mac and cheese, but knew all that fat would seriously aggravate my already flaring GERD. I remembered seeing this recipe, so I gave it a shot. I'll post the exact recipe, then will add how I would tweak it next time. Keep in mind I halved it.
Creamy Mac and Four Cheeses1 16 oz. box elbow mac
2 10 oz. pkgs. frozen pureed winter squash
2 cups low fat milk
1 1/3 cups grated extra sharp cheddar
2/3 cup grated monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup part skim ricotta
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbsp. plain bread crumbs
2 Tbsps. grated parmagiano
1 tsp. olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 375. Coat 9 X 13 baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain well, and transfer to baking dish.
3. While pasta is cooking, place frozen squash and milk in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring and breaking up the squash until it defrosts. Turn up the heat and cook until mixture is just simmering.
4. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the cheddar, jack, ricotta, cayenne, mustard and salt. Pour mixture over pasta and mix thoroughly.
5. Combine bread crumbs, parmagiano and olive oil and sprinkle over pasta.
6. Bake about 25 minutes or until cheese is bubbling. Then broil for about 3 minutes until top is brown.
I doubled the cayenne and added some Frank's hot sauce in addition, but this was still a bit too sweet for me. It would have been better had I been able to find extra sharp cheddar, but my grocery didn't have it. I might actually use all extra sharp cheddar, and skip the jack cheese altogether.
DS thought bacon crumbles would have been a good addition, but that would have defeated the purpose, LOL. Some smoky poblano bits probably would be good too; maybe even a spinkle of smoked paprika to mix in with the cheese mixture.
Served with a black bean, tomato, yellow pepper and cucumber salad. Pretty darned good.
