Baked Macaroni

Make this your specialty :-)

Do you have a go-to recipe for events, gatherings or parties? My husband's Kapampangan clan has all sorts of specialties. Each would bring their own specialty in almost every family event.

Mine is this one. I am proud to say I can make a mean baked mac. It's very easy!!!

Again, this probably comes with age, I forgot where I got this recipe from. So if you recognize this, please let me know :-)

Baked Macaroni

• 225 g of macaroni (penne or ziti), cooked according to package directions undercooking by 5 minutes

Sauce:

• 3 tbsp of butter
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1/4 kg of ground beef
• 1/4 kg of smoked ham/bacon/salami/pepperoni
• 1/4 kg of sliced button mushrooms
• 1/4 kg of tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 kg of onions, chopped
• 4-5 green or red bell pepper, cored and chopped
• 1 whole garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup of tomato paste
• 3-4 cups of good meat broth
• bunch of basil leaves or 1 tsp of dried basil
• salt
• pepper
• sugar

Topping:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 of 225g quickmelt cheese
• 1/2 of 225g cream cheese, softened then cut into small pieces
• salt
• pepper

Cook the pasta sauce:

1. Heat the butter and olive oil together over med-high heat
2. Add ground beef, breaking up the lumps
3. Add garlic and cook until meat starts to brown
4. Add ham/bacon. Stir and cook for few minutes
5. Add the vegetables and cook.
6. Add tomato paste and stir. Pour the meat broth. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.
7. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 mins.

Cook the topping:

1. While pasta sauce simmers, prepare cream cheese topping.
2. Melt the butter in saucepan.
3. When frothy, add the flour all at once, stirring. Let the flour cook for about 5 minutes. Usually the flour is cooked when the mixture starts to turn golden brown.
4. Pour in the water in a thin stream, stirring as you do. Mixture will be lumpy at this stage.
5. Pour in the milk slowly, again, stirring as you pour. By the time the milk has been incorporated in the mixture, it will appear to be a little thin. The cheeses will thicken them to required consistency.
6. Add the cheeses. Set the heat to low and let the cheeses melt, stirring occassionally. Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper.

Baking:

1. When the sauce is done, add the cooked pasta and toss well. Let the mixture cook over low heat and occassional stirring (5-6 minutes).
2. Pour the pasta and sauce into a baking dish. Make sure that the dish is large enough so that the mixture is an inch below the rim.
3. Pour the topping onto the pasta mixture, spreading to seal the edges. If you don't seal the edges, the exposed pasta will dry up during baking.
4. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 20-25 mins or until top is lightly browned.
5. Let the baked mac rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

I bought a pyrex 9X13 baking dish last week and was very excited to try this today. Lo and behold, the dish wouldn't fit my measly oven!!! Damn you cheap oven! I had to be resourceful and find an alternative.

This must be my unlucky day because I decided to use my 9X13 teflon pan to make classic crumb cake (which I have not posted yet, lazy me). So that is not an option. I used my 10" round teflon pan and 8X8 pyrex baking dish. A little tedious but this tactic actually worked.

Mixing the pasta and the sauce

Arrange the pasta in your baking dish
Pour the topping
Bake - I wish you can smell this


Eat :-D

Pawis rating: 4 of 5 - This is not at all difficult but it had so many steps and so many ingredients I needed to chop! My hands are tired :-(