Lightened up, Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Lightened up, Baked Macaroni and Cheese

 

 

I love macaroni and cheese; it’s comforting and no matter how crappy your day was, it makes you feel whole inside.  Wow, that’s a tall order!  I’m totally picturing that commercial from the ‘80s when the guy comes home from work at night in a rain storm with the flu and his dog shows up with medicine around his collar (I’m officially old).

Serves 8

1 tbsp butter

I small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp whole wheat flour

1/4 cup white wine

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 500 g tub fat free cottage cheese (pureed in a food processor or blender)

1 375 g box whole wheat macaroni

Broccoli, broken into florets

1 Cup of the starchy pasta water reserved before straining the pasta

1 Cup old cheddar, divided

Salt

Pepper

2 tbsp unseasoned breadcrumbs

–  Preheat your oven to 375.

–  Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta; season it liberally with salt (the idea is to have the water taste like the sea).

–  Cook the pasta for half the amount of time the box calls for; mine called for 8 minutes so I cooked the macaroni for 4 minutes.

–  Add the broccoli florets to the pasta water at the same time you add the macaroni.

–  When you have added the pasta and broccoli to the boiling water start building your sauce:

–  In a large skillet over high heat, add the butter, when its melted add the onion and sauté until the onions are soft and translucent; about 5-7 minutes.

–  The pasta and broccoli should be ready to be strained about now, remember to reserve a cup of the starchy cooking water.  Just let the pasta and broccoli sit in the strainer/colander until you’re ready to add it to the sauce.

–  Add the flour to the skillet and sauté for at least a minute (this gets rid of the raw flour flavour; say that 5 times fast!).

–  Add the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds, careful not to let it burn.

–  Turn the heat to high and whisk in the wine, stirring constantly so your sauce doesn’t develop any lumps.

–  Add the starchy cooking water to the skillet.

–  Add the Dijon mustard.

–  Drop the heat to low and add the pureed cottage cheese.

–  Stir in a ½ cup of the cheddar cheese.

–  Season the sauce liberally with salt and pepper, the sauce is going to taste fine as is but the pasta absorbs a lot of the flavour as it’s baking in the oven.

–  Mix in the pasta and broccoli.

–  Transfer the mac and cheese to a large, greased casserole dish (9×13); I used a cooking spray to grease the casserole dish.

–  Top with the remaining cheddar cheese and then top the cheese with the plain breadcrumbs (trust me, it works!).

–  Bake for 40 minute and then brown the mac and cheese under the broiler for about 2 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and slightly browned.

–  Let the dish stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes:

1. Feel free to pile in any veggies you like, just cook them first so they can give off their water out of the mac and cheese!
2. Use any strong cheese; I had old cheddar on hand; just watch the salt content!
3. If you don’t want to use wine you can use any stock, or even water in its place.