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Recipe: Macaroni and cheese with champagne and pancetta
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Photo © Dawn Viola
What could be better than cheese, pasta, pancetta and champagne! This yummy, creamy, super-cheesy Macaroni and Cheese holds all of my favorite bold flavors, right there, in tiny tubes of pasta. Perfect!
Serving Size: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
1 pound macaroni (any style of tube pasta can be used)
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
1/2 cup of minced pancetta or bacon
3 large shallots, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup Champagne
1 cup milk (any style - we have low fat in the fridge)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup asiago cheese, grated
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup provolone cheese, grated
1/4 cup Parmesano Reggiano, grated
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt + more to taste
Directions:
Bring water to a boil in a stock pot for cooking macaroni. Once the water boils, add the macaroni. If serving from the stove, cook to al dente. If baking the mac and cheese, cook the macaroni for only 6 minutes and drain.
As the macaroni is cooking, prepare the roux and cheeses:
In a large sauce pan, heat 1 tbs olive oil on medium heat. Add the pancetta and render until just crispy. Add the minced shallots and cook until translucent. Adjust heat as needed, to prevent the shallots from browning.
In a separate pan, or in the microwave, heat the chicken stock and milk until piping hot, but not boiling. Set aside. Add the butter to the pan and stir to incorporate. Add the garlic and stir to incorporate. Immediately add the flour to the oil/butter mixture and stir vigorously until everything is well blended and comes together. Mixture will be sticky and dough-like. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Adjust heat to prevent browning.
Add 1/2 of the hot chicken broth mixture to the pan and stir out any lumps. Add the Champagne and stir to incorporate. Add the rest of the chicken broth mixture and stir to incorporate. Cook on Medium for one minute, stirring occasionally. Combine all of the cheeses in one bowl. Add half of the cheese to the chicken broth mixture and stir until well blended. Add the nutmeg. Add the rest of the cheese. Add the salt, stir. Cook for one minute and taste for additional seasoning.
Drain the macaroni. If serving from the stove, add the pasta directly to the sauce pan with the cheese mixture, stir to coat and serve. If baking, drain the macaroni after 6 minutes - the macaroni will continue to cook in the oven. Pour the macaroni and sauce into a baking dish.
Top with additional cheese or breadcrumbs. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
What the kids can do:
Kids can have a ball grating the different cheeses. And cheese is a great way to practice adjectives! Let them taste each cheese separately, and then try a bite with them all combined. What did they think? How did it feel in their mouth? Was it salty, stinky, smooth, grainy, sharp, mellow?
Kids can help measure and pour as well - a great way to practice math and fractions. Older peeps can work the stove with supervision and bring that roux to life!
How to spice it up:
Sky is the limit when you want to kick up your mac and cheese. Try some spicy Italian sausage mixed into the cheese sauce, or how about a spicy Chorizo. Red pepper flakes add a mellow heat. And then if you want to take it south of the border, Chipotle chilis and smoked paprika, maybe with a few pinches of instant coffee, will perk up your cheese.
Now what do I do with it?
Macaroni and cheese, on its own, is hearty enough for a main course. Serve with your favorite leafy green salad, and you're good to go. Go classic as a side dish with meatloaf or chicken. Or, if you're feeling really crazy, refrigerate the mac and cheese for a couple of hours until it firms up; cut into squares; dredge in flour and deep fry. You can also bake your macaroni and cheese in muffin tins for individual servings.
Neat things you should know:
- Macaroni and Cheese was the U.S. answer to the British dish cauliflower cheese.
- The invention of macaroni (what the Italians call pasta secca and which specifies dried versus fresh, pasta fresca-pasta) has been attributed to the Etruscans, the Chinese, the Greeks, and the Romans, as well as the Arabs.
- The song “Yankee Doodle” has mistakenly been handed down to us with the word macaroni instead of the original word, "maccheroni," meaning foppish/stylish. "He put a feather in his cap and called it maccheroni!
- In 1937, Kraft Foods introduced the Kraft Dinner, macaroni noodles with a cheese sauce. The product was originally marketed as Kraft Dinner, but is now known in the United States and other countries as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (Dinner). In the United Kingdom, it is marketed as Cheesey Pasta, while in Canada, it has retained its original name of Kraft Dinner (and nickname KD).
- Some link Thomas Jefferson as creating the first classic macaroni and cheese dish, with sharp British cheddar. In 1789, he returned from Europe, bringing the first macaroni machine to the United States...and then made a better one!
- The Slow Food Movement has recently created a Cheddar Presidia, claiming that only three cheeses should be called 'Cheddar'. Their specifications require that Cheddar cheese be made in Somerset, and with traditional methods, such as using raw milk, traditional animal rennet, and a cloth wrapping.
Dawn Viola is a nationally recognized artist, competitive cook and food writer. Follow her blog, Wicked Good Dinner, or onTwitter.
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