It's no secret that I have a long-standing and intense love affair with mac and cheese. Baked, creamy, from-a-box or made from scratch...as long as it has noodles and cheese, I'm in. So when I saw this recipe for mac and cheese soup in Cuisine at Home magazine, I knew I had to put my own spin on it. Blue cheese and some other unusual flavorings give this soup an unexpected kick, so it's far from your average bowl of mac.
Ingredients:
- 1 /12 cups dry macaroni (for this, I used some spiral-shaped cavatappi instead)
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 cup dry white wine or cooking sherry
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 cups milk
- 4 cups shredded Cheddar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- salt
- 1/4 cup crumbled bleu cheese
- 2 tbsp minced fresh chives
Start by cooking your tubular pasta of choice in a pot of salted water according to package directions. When it's ready, drain and set aside.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan, then stir in flour and cook (stirring constantly) for about one minute to make a roux. Pour in the wine/sherry to deglaze and simmer until the wine is nearly evaporated.
Stir in the chicken broth, nutmeg and cayenne. Simmer until it thickens a little (about five minutes or so), then whisk in the milk and let it slowly warm up. Whatever you do, don't let it boil. It gets grainy and gross, and no one wants that.
Stir in the cheddar cheese, about a cup at a time, letting it melt completely before adding the next batch. Then stir in the lemon juice, a dash of salt (taste it to make sure it's enough) and the pasta.
Remove your saucepan from heat and top with bleu cheese and chives. YUM. Matt and I both loved this soup, but next time I think I'm gonna try making some homemade pretzels (from a recipe on Pinterest, no doubt) to go with it. DOUBLE YUM.
So I recently decided to go back on the rotating-menu plan for dinners each week, mostly because I was getting sick of the "What do you feel like tonight?" "I don't know, what do you want?" "I don't know, wanna just get take out?" routine. So a few weekends ago, I took several hours and planned out six weeks' worth of menus with some new recipes to try and, of course, some new favorites. One of the new recipes is this penne dish, from a junk mailer I got once called Fine Cooking Magazine. And oh-my-freaking-gosh you guys. This dish. Is. The. Bomb.
Best of all, it re-heats really, really well. So I can make this full four-serving recipe, then have enough leftover to eat for lunch the next day. Score!
Ingredients:
- kosher salt, pepper
- 8 oz. fresh baby spinach (about 10 lightly packed cups)
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (adjust according to taste)
- 12 oz uncooked penne (about 3 1/2 cups)
- 3/4 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh chives
Make sure there's a rack positioned in the center of your oven, then preheat to 350 degrees. While it's heating, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. Put the spinach in a colander in the sink.
Spread the walnuts out evenly on a baking sheet and toast until dark golden-brown, about six to eight minutes. You'll be able to smell them when they're ready. Oh man. I just started drooling. When they're done, set aside to cool.
Cook the penne to al dente. Reserve about half a cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta in the colander over the spinach. This, and the hot pasta lying on top of the spinach for the next few minutes, actually cooks the greens. How cool is that?
Add the gorgonzola and cream to a 10- to 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and bring to a gentle boil. Add pepper to taste, as well as a pinch of kosher salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture is slightly thickened and the gorgonzola is mostly melted. It should take about two to three minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium, add the pasta and spinach, and stir to coat. Add half of the walnuts and chives and stir again to combine. Cook until the pasta absorbs some of the sause, about two minutes more. If the mixture gets too thick, add some of the reserved cooking water to loosen it up. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed. Dish out into serving bowls and top with the remaining walnuts and chives, and try not to wolf it down like a starved person. (Trust me, it's harder than it sounds!)
