Another confession. I don’t really like carbs, I am from Indonesia, that is in Asia, that makes me an Asian. Out of all the years of living by myself, once I bought rice to cook, only once, and I did’t even cook it to make rice, I cooked the first and only rice I bought as an adult, to make congee. I eat rice more than once of course, but unlike any other Asians or non Asians, rice is pretty much a staple in their kitchens. But not mine!
So for someone who dislike the taste of carbs, I sure do eat a lot of pasta. Cause they are easy to cook, and I can just make a lot of casseroles and ‘casseroles like’ dishes. Like this mac&cheese. Obviously I loaded up with the protein, in here I used sausages. But you can use chicken, ground turkey, or my fave is bacon. And yes, you can use nothing, just a good ol’ mac and good ol’ cheese.
Ingredients:
8 oz medium shell pasta or elbow
12 oz sausages -sliced
2 tbsp butter -divided
1 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup heavy/whipping cream -cold
1/3 cup reserved water from boiling pasta
1 cup of cheddar cheese -shredded
1 cup of mozzarella cheese -shredded
1 tbsp parsley -finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Cook pasta according to box instructions -al dente.
- In a large skillet, over medium high heat, add butter then cook the sausage until they’re browned. Set aside.
- Using the same skillet, add the rest of the butter. Let it melt then stir in the flour, and keep stirring until it becomes roux.
- Add a cup of cold heavy/whipping cream and reserved water to the skillet, keep stirring. Now you have a white sauce.
- Stir in a cup of cheddar cheese, salt & pepper and nutmeg into the sauce.
- Stir in the sausage and pasta into the mixture and stir to combine.
- Top it with mozzarella cheese and put in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese melts and brown.
- Garnish with parsley, serve. Enjoy!