Creole-Andouille Macaroni and Cheese

Wow, it’s been a while!  I see that I haven’t posted in over a month, since right before St. Patrick’s Day….but I am here today to inform you that from now on when we want pasta in our house, we get to use our shiny new KitchenAid stand mixer pasta roller attachments (more to be added to that collection in the future I am sure).  Why, you ask?  Because last night, we used up our last box of store-bought pasta in a very, very delicious protein-packed macaroni and cheese recipe, the basis for which I dug up here while searching for ways to use andouille sausage that we’d procured at a lovely local shop called Karl’s Sausage Kitchen. 

Mmmmmm.  Here’s my version of the found recipe:

Ingredients

• 8 ounces (dry), or one-half box, of Rigatoni pasta
• 8 ounces of andouille sausage, thinly sliced
• ½-cup chopped onion
• ½-cup chopped red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 and ½ cups heavy cream
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used one-year aged Vermont cheddar, and shredded it myself)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning, depending on the level of spice you desire (I made my own mix from Emeril’s recipe)
• ¼-cup plain bread crumbs mixed with 1 tablespoon melted butter

Method

1.  Preheat your oven to 350-degrees.

2.  Lightly grease a 2-quart casserole with oil, butter or cooking spray.

3.  Cook the pasta to al dente, drain, rinse and set aside.

4.  In a large skillet, cook the sausage, onion and bell pepper until the onions are translucent.

5.  Remove this mixture from the pan and set aside.

6.  Using the same skillet, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat, stir in the flour to make a roux.  Then pour in the heavy cream and the Creole seasoning, stirring frequently until it starts to thicken.  Add the shredded cheese and stir until melted.

7.  Stir the cooked pasta and the sausage-onion-pepper mixture into the cheese sauce, mix well, and then spoon it all into the casserole.

8.  Top with the bread crumb/butter mixture and bake (uncovered) for 30 minutes.

9.  It will be hard resist, but try to let it cool before eating it.  Serves 3 to 4 quite heartily.

The quick and dirty review – We thought this dinner was fantastic and we will surely make this dish again.  Even kitty couldn’t get enough….no really, I had to steal the bowl away from her and then she went into a happy cheese coma.  Enough said.  =)