Extra Mushrooms Macaroni and Cheese recipe
This is one of my favorite macaroni and cheese recipe; sauteed mushrooms combine very well with mac and cheese. For this recipe to be a success you have to fry the mushrooms until they are quite browned, with all water evaporated...
What you will need for this:
for the fried mushrooms:
- butter and extra-virgin olive oil
-3 cups varied types of mushrooms; as you wish (shi-take, chanterelles, portablella, pleurotes...)
- to taste, salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the macaroni and cheese itself
-1 lb macaroni pasta (or any short pasta you like)
-1 tablespoon butter
-2 tablespoons white all purpose flour
-2 cups 15% cream
-3 cups grated cheese, 3 different kinds (Old orange-colored cheddar, Emmenthal, Gruyère cheeses)
-2 cups spinaches
-the fried mushrooms from above
-2 cups of bread cut in small dice
-1/2 cup of well-blended butter
-1/3 of the cup of chopped parsley
- to taste, salt and freshly ground black pepper
Steps to make this recipe now:
Fried mushrooms
- Clean and slice your mushrooms;
- In a very hot frying pan, drop the mushrooms in a little bit oil and butter.
- To help them get this nice golden grilled look, try not to move mushrooms around too often and extend frying time to about 10 minutes.
- In this recipe, mushrooms must very well roasted, so that a maximum of water must has evaporated of mushrooms, not to dilute the sauce of your macaroni.
- Salt, add pepper and reserve.
The macaroni and cheese itself
- Preheat the oven to 400 °F.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour and mix; do not let the butter brown;
- Pour the cream and blend well with the help of a whisk.
- When the texture of cream will be very smooth, start adding the cheese while stirring constantly.
- Season to taste.
- Then, blend cooked macaronis, spinaches and mushrooms in the cream with cheese,
and pour it all in an oven-going pan.
- Spread the bread crumbs, some melted butter and the parsley; sprinkle more
cheese over all this.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cheese from the top is nice and golden and has formed a nice crust.
A few more things:
- When draining pasta for any mac and cheese recipe, it is necessary to drain well them and most particularily, do not rinse the pasta.
- You should be never cook (melt) cheese under high heat setting, since this tends to separate the fat from the cheeses.
- It is necessary to control how hot is your sauce and to add the cheeses progressively.
- It is recommended to priviledge cheeses of semi-firm paste over the others.
- The bread chunks can be replaced by of breadcrumbs, and spinaches by all other prickly and bitter veggies.