Sriracha Mushroom Sausage Mac and Cheese

This mac and cheese has been haunting me for over a year. It was on the list, but kept getting pushed back. The idea sprang from something Mandi ate at an upscale pub awhile back. Since I love the combo of mac and cheese with sriracha but never officially posted such a recipe on here, I was excited to make it. The problem was every time I tried to make it, I couldn’t find any decent mushrooms! Mushroom season is weird you guys! The other day I was in Whole Foods and they happened to have a crazy abundance of delicious and weird looking mushrooms, so I snatched them up and ran home to make this.

I was lucky enough to get these tasty brats sent to me from Kayem. Brown them up, then braise them in beer until fully cooked.

The variety of mushrooms is what makes this dish fun.

As each item gets cooked, it goes into the baking dish. The mushrooms are just quickly seared in butter so that they don’t become overcooked during the baking process.

After you make the beschamel sauce, add the sausage cooking liquid to the mix.

Cheese goes in next, then sriracha. Mix the sauce with the mushrooms, sausage, and pasta, and get it into the oven. This may seem like a lot of sriracha, but the spice level in sriracha cooks off with very minimal heat, so the final mac and cheese is left with a balanced flavor and isn’t super spicy.

Oh yeaaaaaaa.

Something seemed a little naked about this bowl…

Duh, more sriracha!

Making mac and cheese is like therapy for me, and after the hectic last month or so, I really needed it!

3 Bratwurst sausages
3-4 cups various chopped mushrooms
1 cup sriracha
1 beer
1 onion, diced
4 cups milk
6 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 pound pasta
8 oz cheddar, grated
16 oz gruyere, grated
1 cup panko breadcrumbs

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on a medium low heat and lightly brown the sausages in the butter on all sides. Add in the beer and simmer until the sausages are fully cooked. Set aside the sausages and reserve the cooking liquid (you should have about 3/4 cup of beer-sausage-butter juice)

Bring pasta water to a boil in a large pot.

In 1 tablespoon of butter sear half of the mushrooms and move them to the baking dish. Repeat with the next half of the mushrooms. Chop the sausages into half moons and add them to the baking dish as well. Get the rest of the butter into the pot(3 tablespoons) and cook the onions about 15 minutes until lightly browned. Meanwhile drop your pasta. Stir the flour into the onions and mix well. Cook, stirring often for about 2-3 minutes to lightly brown the flour. Whisk in the milk and bring to a light simmer whisking constantly. Once the mixture thickens at a simmer, remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Strain the pasta when it is tender and add it right to the mushroom sausage mixture. Stir the reserved beer into the sauce once it has cooled. Whisk the cheeses into the sauce. Stir in the sriracha. Mix the sauce with the pasta/mushroom/sausage mixture. Top with breadcrumbs and pop into the oven. Cook at 400 for about a half hour.