Mac and cheese with chorizo | insimoneskitchen.com

“Oh honey…?” I look up from whatever I am doing and see Tom standing in the dooropening with a slightly heated face. “I can’t possibly manage to make dudefood this week!” I shrug… “O I will make something than… It won’t be the first time anyway!” See, you have to know, ladies and gentleman dudefood lovers: my dude sucks at multi tasking. So if he is busy with work, something that has everything to do with Simone’s Kitchen anyway, he is incapable of also thinking of a recipe to make. That – my dear friends – requires a different set of braincells. Dudefood worthy mac and cheese with chorizo and cauliflower | insimoneskitchen.com

You see, making dudefood takes him at least half a day. Thinking of what to make, dreaming up flavor combinations, making the dish and endlessly pestering his wife to make a photo of that dish. (usually at rather akward timing) Because that is how it goes.  I – as a true dudette – can of course multi task like the best. And as coincidence would have it, last Sunday, Charlotte and I worked our butts of in the kitchen and at the end of the day we were exhausted but happy and managed to make not one, not two, but six new dishes! I admit, that was a little insane, but you see it comes in quite handy right now. And this mac and cheese is delicious. The photo – I have to admit – doesn’t really do it justice as this dish here is cold. We made an extra portion to photograph the day after and that is what you see here. I didn’t want to reheat it twice (as it was also dinner that same night) so it’s a little dry.  Mac and cheese with chorizo and cauliflower | insimoneskitchen.com

But preheated it will be as deliciously moist as it should be and to be honest it is even better the next day. It’s not the first time I am making a Mac and cheese and in essence it is not really very different, but to vary Charlotte and I decided to add cauliflower and crispy baked chorizo for the extra special dudeness effect. And that cauliflower is especially for Tom as he feels I am making too many healthy dishes containing cauliflower (I love cauliflower!) and trust me this dish is anything BUT healthy.

Of course it is easy to vary by adding different vegetables, different cheese and so on. I love a good creamy mac and cheese so I used a cheese sauce here. And because we – dudettes – are really very nice people, we made a special version for my non-cheese loving dude. One with meat and lots of extra chorizo. I’m just saying… With a little bit of luck the man himself will be back next week. And I’m pretty sure he will feel like taking revenge. Just so you know. You’ve been warned! 🙂

Mac and cheese with chorizo | insimoneskitchen.com

Mac and Cheese with chorizo

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Ingredients

  • 500 gram pasta
  • 1 chorizo
  • large piece of extra old cheese 150-200 gram
  • piece of parmezan roughly. 75 gram
  • 50 gram butter
  • 1-2 tbsp of flour
  • 400 ml double cream or milk
  • 1/2 cauliflower
  • pepper
  • salt

  • Preheat the oven to 200 C
  • Cut the chorizo into slices and the slices in quarters. Fry this in a frying pan (don't add any fat) and leave to drain on a piece of kitchen paper. It releases enormous amount of fat.
  • Grate the cheeses together and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package and leave to drain.
  • Chop the cauliflower finely and bake in a pan for a bit just so it is not entirely raw going in. It will cook in the oven.
  • Grease an ovendish with some butter and make a layer of the cooked pasta. Add the cauliflower on top and the chopped chorizo. Make another layer of pasta
  • Now you make the cheese sauce. Melt 50 gram of butter in a saucepan and add the flour and stir until it combines. Leave this to cook for a bit before you add the cream and/or milk. You can use only cream or only milk or a mix of both. Add a little bit at the time and stir out all lumps and bumps before adding some more. I like to use a whisk to do this. What you will be left with is a sauce that is thick but not too thick. A little bit like a regular pouring sauce.
  • Add the cheese in and stir it all through. Add pepper and salt if needed (depending on the saltiness of your cheese) and pour the sauce over your pasta.
  • Finish off with a bit of grated cheese on top and put into the oven for about 30 minutes or until golden.

Disclaimer

The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.

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Simone van den Berg

Food blogger from the Netherlands. Loves good food. Likes to create healthy and easy recipes for daily use, but also loves the occasional sweet dish. Lives in the Netherlands with her two cats; Humphrey and Buffy. Profession: Food photographer, food blogger, recipe developer and nutritionist