Food Fridays: Baked mac & cheese

This is, without a doubt, one of my absolute favorite recipes. It's easy, it's DELICIOUS, and it's something of a family recipe. Since there's no real secret, and I've added my own personal touches to the original recipe, I've decided to share it in all its cheesy, bacony, mouthwatering goodness.


Ingredients:
- about half a box of elbow macaroni (rotini, rigatoni or bowtie pasta would probably work well too)
- a bread-bowl-sized roll of sourdough bread
- 4-5 strips of bacon
- about 1/2 to 2/3 cup cottage cheese
- about 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
- 16-oz package of shredded cheese...I like to use a three-cheddar blend

As with most of my recipes, nothing about this is an exact science. That's what makes it fun! So let's get started.

First, bring water to a boil in a large pot and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a separate pan, start cooking the bacon. When the water is boiling, add a good dash of salt and the noodles of your choice and cook until just past al dente. (You want them to be pretty soft, since they're going in the oven.) When they're cooked, drain and return to the pot, off-heat.



Meanwhile, cook the bacon to a nice crisp that will be easy to crumble into pieces. Also meanwhile, rip the sourdough bread into small chunks and throw, a few pieces at a time, into a food processor. Pulse until you have very fine breadcrumbs. You'll have WAY more than you need, but that's okay because you can freeze them and use them for other recipes later. Way to plan ahead!



Okay, so the noodles are already cooked and drained. You now want to do the same with the bacon—lay 'em on a few layers of paper towel, cover with another paper towel and press gently to remove the extra grease. Let cool.



While the bacon is cooling, use a wooden or plastic spoon to mix the sour cream, cottage cheese and egg into the noodles. Make sure the egg yolk gets broken and thoroughly mixed in. Then, mix in about half of the bag of shredded cheese.



Spray a baking pan (I think mine is appx. 9"x13"?) with cooking spray, then spread about half of the noodle mixture into the pan. Sprinkle with a little layer of shredded cheese. Spread the rest of the noodles over that. Crumble the bacon into little pieces over that, then cover the whole thing with the remaining shredded cheese. Remember, there is no such thing as too much cheese.

Bake, covered with foil, for about 15 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted. Then uncover, sprinkle with the breadcrumbs (betcha forgot about those delicious morsels) and bake uncovered for about another 15 minutes, or until the crumbs are all nice and toasty. Try not to eat the entire pan in one sitting...because this also makes a great next-day leftovers meal!



Oh man. I die.