Macaroni cheese with N'duja and peas
A reliable fridge/freezer-raid recipe spiked with spicy spreadable saus
I like an OTT five-cheese mac & cheese situation as much as the next person but I also like mac & cheese in the week, as a normal-person meal, and I just don’t have that kind of cheese supply on a casual Tuesday night when it’s just Alex and I (contrary to popular belief). This macaroni cheese recipe is suitably upgraded via some tips I’ve learned from making more extravagant iterations - eggs yolks make the consistency silky and a ball of mozzarella added at just the right moment provides mouthfuls of creaminess and excellent cheese pull, for example - but mostly relies on the stuff you’ll have in your fridge and freezer. Save for the N’duja, which you obviously don’t have to include, but if you really want to love cheesy pasta yet often down your fork feeling like you ate a bunch of bland stodgy nothingness, this spicy something-something may be exactly what you’ve been waiting for…
Serves 4
300g macaroni
3 heaped tbsp sour cream
140g cheddar
100g frozen peas
1 ball mozzarella
2 egg yolks
30g N’duja
50g breadcrumbs
1 clove of garlic, minced
Preheat oven to 200C. Bring a pan of heavily salted water to the boil and cook the pasta as per packet instructions minus 2 minutes. Drain the water keeping the pasta in the saucepan.
Put the saucepan back on the hob on a low heat and add the sour cream and cheddar. Mix well until combined and saucy.
Take the saucepan off the heat completely and add the peas, mozzarella, egg yolks and 20g of the nduja. Now is a good time to season with a little salt and a little more pepper. Mix until well combined.
Pour the pasta into a baking dish and sprinkle with breadcrumbs, garlic and the rest of the nduja. Drizzle with olive oil.
Bake for 15-20 mins. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving and then dish up with something green - I like tenderstem or kale.